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Home , Chauri Chaura, Cow protection movement, Deoria district, February 1921, Gauri Bazar, Gorakhpur

Gandhi as Mahatma 289 of time to lead or influence a political movement of the peasantry. Gandhi, the person, was in this particular locality for less than a day, but the 'Mahatma' as an 'idea' was thought out and reworked in Gandhi as Mahatma: popular imagination in subsequent months. Even in the eyes of some local Congressmen this 'deification'—'unofficial canonization' as the District, Eastern UP, Pioneer put it—assumed dangerously distended proportions by April-. 1921-2' In following the career of the Mahatma in one limited area Over a short period, this essay seeks to place the relationship between Gandhi and the peasants in a perspective somewhat different from SHAHID AMIN the view usually taken of this grand subject. We are not concerned with analysing the attributes of his charisma but with how this 'Many miracles, were previous to this affair [the riot at Chauri registered in peasant consciousness. We are also constrained by our Chaura], sedulously circulated by the designing crowd, and firmly believed by the ignorant crowd, of the Non-co-operation world of primary documentation from looking at the image of Gandhi in this district'. Gorakhpur historically—at the ideas and beliefs about the Mahatma —M. B. Dixit, Committing Magistrate, that percolated into the region before his visit and the transformations, Trials. if any, that image underwent as a result of his visit. Most of the rumours about the Mahatma.'spratap (power/glory) were reported in the local press between February and May 1921. And as our sample I of fifty fairly elaborate 'stories' spans this rather brief period, we cannot fully indicate what happens to the 'deified' image after the Gandhi visited the district of Gorakhpur in eastern UP on 8 February rioting at Chauri Chaura in early 1922 and the subsequent withdrawal 1921, addressed a monster meeting variously estimated at between 1 of the Non-Co-operation movement. The aim of the present exercise lakh and 2.5 lakhs and returned the same evening to Banaras. He was is then the limited one of taking a close look at peasant perceptions of accorded a tumultuous welcome in the district, but unlike in Gandhi by focusing on the trail of stories that marked his passage Champaran and Kheda he did not stay in Gorakhpur for any length through the district. The location of the Mahatma image within 1 Research for this paper was funded by grants from the British Academy and existing patterns of popular beliefs and the way it informed direct Trinity College, Oxford. I am extremely grateful to Dr Ramachandra Tiwari for action, often at variance with the standard interpretations of the letting me consult the back numbers of Swadesh in his possession. Without his Congress creed, are the two main issues discussed in this essay. hospitality and kindness the data used in this paper could not have been gathered. Earlier versions of this essay were discussed at St Stephen's College, , the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and the Conference on the Subaltern in South In a number of contemporary nationalist writings peasant perceptions Asian History and Society, held at the Australian National University, Canberra, in of and beliefs about Gandhi figure as incidents of homage and November 1982.1 am grateful to David Arnold, Gautam Bhadra, Dipesh Chakrabarty, offering. Touching instances of devotion and childlike manifestations Partha Chatterjee, Bernard Cohn, Veena Das, Anjan Ghosh, Ranajit Guha, David of affection are highlighted in the narratives of his tour in northern Hardiman, Christopher Hill, S. N. Mukherjce, Gyan Pandey, Sumit Sarkar, Abhijit 2 Sen, Savyasaachi and Harish Trivedi for their criticisms and suggestions. My debt to during the winter of 1920-2. And if this spectacle of popular Roland Barthes, 'Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives', in Stephen regard gets out of hand, it is read as a sign of the mule-like obstinacy Heath (ed.), Image-Music-Test (, 1979), Peter Burke, Popular Culture in (hathagraha) of simple, guileless kisans. The sight and sound of

Early Modern Europe (, 1979), Ch. 5 and Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of 2 Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Delhi, 1983), Ch. 6 is too transparent to require See Mahadev Desai, Day-to-day with Gandhi (Secretary's Diary), iii (, detailed acknowledgement. 1965), pp. 143ff. and 262-6. For a condensed version of the same ideas, see D. G. Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, ii (Bombay, 1952), p. 78. 290 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 291 uncouth peasants invading the train carrying Gandhi, rending the so also has appeared as an , I hear. Until I have sky with cries of *jai' and demanding darshan at an unearthly hour, seen him death will not appear'. This simple faith moved India's millions could be annoying and unnerving. But all was not yet lost because who greeted him everywhere with the cry, 'Mahatma Gandhi-ki-jai'. Prostitutes of Barisal, the Marwari merchants of Calcutta, Oriya coolies, local Congress leaders could be counted on to restrain the militant railway strikers, Santals eager to present khadi chaddars, all claimed his 3 exuberance of lathi-wielding, torch-bearing enthusiasts. A passage attention. tided 'Boundless Love' from the tour diary of his secretary is repre­ From Aliearh to Dibrugarh and then as far as Tinnevelly he went from sentative of how peasant attitudes towards Gandhi have been written village to village, from town to town, sometimes speaking in temples and 5 about in nationalist narratives: mosques. Wherever he went he had to endure the tyranny of love. It is impossible to put in language the exuberance of love which Gandhiji Examples of such darshan-seeking scenes could be multiplied, and and Shaukat Ali experienced in . Our train on the B.N.W. Railway we shall come back to them in our account of Gandhi's passage line stopped at all stations and there was not a single station which was not through Gorakhpur. It is worth stressing here that the Gandhi- crowded with hundreds of people at that time. Even women, who never darshari motif in nationalist discourse reveals a specific attitude stir out of their homes, did not fail to present themselves so that they towards the subalterns—the sadharan janta or ordinary people as could see and hear him. A huge concourse of students would everywhere smother Gandhiji with their enthusiasm. If at some place a sister would they are referred to in the nationalist press. To behold the take off her coral necklace and tell him, T give this specially for you to Mahatma in person and become his devotees were the only roles wear', at some other, sanyasis would come and leave their rosaries on his assigned to them, while it was for the urban intelligentsia and full- lap. If beautiful sheets or handspun and hand-woven cloth, many yards time party activists to convert this groundswell of popular feeling long, would be presented at one place, at some other place would turn up into an organized movement. Thus it would appear that even in the a loving villager from the woods, boastful of his trophy, saying, 'Maharaj relationship between peasant devotees and their Mahatma there was (an address of reverence) this is my feat of strength. The tiger was a terror to our people; I am giving the skin to you'. At some places, guns normally room for political mediation by the economically better off and used as fog-signals were fired in his honour. At some others, we came socially more powerful followers.6 across railway officers who would not give the green flag, when our train The idea of the artifacts of the 'mythopoeic imagination of childlike came within their jurisdiction, in order to have and let others have peasants' being mediated by political intermediaries occurs in anti- Gandhiji's darshan. Not minding the fact that our 'Special* was certain to pass by them in terrific speed, people were seen at some places, standing nationalist discourse as well. Referring to stories about the power of along the railway lines in distant hope of having just a glimpse of Gandhiji Gandhi current in Gorakhpur and other districts of eastern UP in the or at least of making their loud shouts of 'Gandhi-Shaukat Ali-ki-jai' spring of 1921, the.Pioneer wrote in an editorial: reach his ear. We have met with even policemen who had the courage to Mr Gandhi is beginning to reap the penalty of having allowed himself to approach Gandhiji to salute him or touch his hand, and CID's [sic] also be unofficially canonized (as we should say in the West) by his adoring who would plaintively say, 'We have taken to this dirty work for the sake 4 countrymen. We say 'reap the penalty', because it is inconceivable that a of the sinning flesh, but please do accept these five rupees'. man of his transparent candour and scrupulous regard for truth should hear without chagrin the myths which are being associated with him as a Seeking darshan was obviously a fairly visible sign of popular worker of miracles. The very simple people in the east and south of the reverence, and no wonder it occupies a prominent place in descrip­ United Provinces afford a fertile soil in which a belief in the powers of the tions of Gandhi's tours. D. G. Tendulkar writes of the Mahatma's 'Mahatmaji', who is after all little more than a name of power to them, 'tour of mass conversions to the new creed' in 1921 as follows: may grow. In the 'Swadesh', a paper published in Gorakhpur, four miracles were quoted last month as being popularly attributable to Mr Remarkable scenes were witnessed. In a Bihar village when Gandhi and Gandhi. Smoke was seen coming from wells and, when water was drunk, his party were stranded in the train, an old woman came seeking out it had the fragrance of keora (pandanus odaratissimus) an aloe-like plant Gandhi. 'Sire, I am now one hundred and four', she said, 'and my sight which is used in the manufacture of perfume; a copy of the Holy has grown dim. I have visited the various holy places. In my own home I was found in a room which had not been opened for a year; an Ahir who have dedicated two temples. Just as we had and as , refused alms to a begging in Mahatma Gandhi's name, had his gur 3 See below, p. 21. 4 Desai, pp. 142-3. 5 Tendulkar, p. 78. « Cf. p. 19 below. 292 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 293 and two buffaloes destroyed by fire, and a sceptical , who defied district. The peasants' faith in Gandhi's power was indexed by Mr Gandhi's authority, went mad and was only cured three days after­ 'fantastic rumours': wards by the invocation of the saintly name! All these events admit of an Those rumours . . . reported that Gandhi had been sent into Champaran obvious explanation, but they are symptoms of an unhealthy nervous by the Viceroy, or even the King, to redress all the grievances of the excitement such as often passed through the peasant classes of Europe in the raiyats, and that his mandate overruled all the local officials and the Middle Ages, and to which the Indian villager is particularly prone. Other courts. He was said to be about to abolish all the unpopular obligations rumours current in are that a man suffered the loss of his wife, which the planters imposed on their raiyats, so that there was no need to sons and brothers because he had offended Gandhi, that the 'Mahatma' obey the word of any planter any more. A rumour was also in the air that was seen in Calcutta and Multan on the same day, and that he restored two the administration of Champaran was going to be made over to the fallen trees. In all these instances we see the mythopoeic imagination of the Indians themselves, and that the British would be cleared out of the childlike peasant at work, and perhaps nobody is much the worse, but a district within a few months.9 case reported from Mirzapur would require sooner or later the attention of the police. The story is told that a young ahirin who had been listening Not all of these however were the product of popular imagination. during the day to speeches took a grain of corn in her hands when playing Pouchepadass is of the opinion that 'many of these rumours were with her companions in the evening, blew on it with an invocation of the name of Gandhi and, lo! the one grain became four. Crowds came to see very consciously spread by the local leaders, who took advantage of her in the course of a few days and she quadrupled barley and gram and Gandhi's charismatic appeal to give additional impetus to the agita­ even common objects like pice. But it is reported that strange coins could tion .... But what matters is that the peasants believed them because not be multiplied. While this is obviously a mere trick of mouth concealment, Gandhi's name was associated with them'.10 This faith also broke the the agitator is proclaiming it as a miracle, and all the neurotic girls of the normal ties of deference in the countryside—the hakims and the nilhe countryside will be emulating the achievement.7 sahebs held no terror for the peasants testifying before the Champaran A fuller analysis of some of these stories is presented in another Enquiry Committee. The implication of all this for direct political section of this essay. What is important to notice at this point is that action by the peasants is unfortunately left unexplored. In fact a case while the Pioneer locates the origin of these stories in a popular is made out for the transference of Gandhi's charisma to the author­ imagination fired by 'nervous excitement', their circulation is attri­ ized local interpreters of his will. Pouchepadass warns against over­ buted to 'agitators'. There is no room here for the 'deified' Mahatma rating Gandhi's 'personal ascendancy over the humbler classes': inspiring popular attitudes and actions independent of elite manipu­ When he is present, of course, only his own word counts. But once he is lation and control. gone, the local leaders are apt to retain part of his prestige, and become the Jacques Pouchepadass' sensitive study of Gandhi in Champaran authorized interpreters of his will. It is a fact that from 1918 onwards, can be read at one level as an elaboration of this theme.8 In an after Gandhi had left and the planters' influence had begun to fade away, the hold of die rural oligarchy grew more powerful than ever.11 extended discussion of Gandhi's presence in this district in 1917, the 'obstinate quest for his darshan' is picked out as the initial point of 9 Ibid., pp. 82-3. It is interesting to note that most of these rumours can be classified departure. Pouchepadass notes that Gandhi was 'invariably met by under the motif 'redressal of wrongs done to the peasantry', a development of the throngs of raiyats at railway stations' and elsewhere, and this, com­ popular idea that Gandhi had come to Champaran precisely for such a task. In war-time all rumours are concerned with war. Though not each and every one of the bined with the influx of peasants from a large number of villages to thirty rumours collected by J. Prasad after the great Bihar earthquake was about Bettiah and Motihari to give evidence against the planters, enlarged seismic upheaval, all of them were nevertheless concerned with disaster. See J. Prasad, the area of agitation in the district. 'The name of god was frequently 'The Psychology of Rumour: a study relating to the great Indian earthquake of 1934', used to denominate Gandhi' and the 'obstinate quest for his darshan British Journal of Psychology, 35:1 (July, 1935), p. 10 and and passim. 10 gives further evidence about the deification of the Mahatma' in the Ibid., p. 84; cf. Pandey: 'The belief in an "outside leader" can also be seen as an obverse of a belief in the break-down of the locally recognized structure of authority; and 7 Pioneer, 23 , p. 1. Italics mine. rumour fulfils the function of spreading such a notion as efficiendy as die leader from die 8 Jacques Pouchepadass, 'Local leaders and die intelligentsia in die Champaran town'. See Gyan Pandey, 'Peasant Revolt and Indian Nationalism: die peasant move­ ment in , 1919-22', in R. Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies I (Delhi, 1982), p. 164. satyagraha (1917): a study in peasant mobilization', Contributions to Indian Sociology 11 (NS) 8: 1974, esp. pp. 82-5. Pouchepadass, p. 85. 294 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 295 However, evidence from north Bihar and eastern UP suggests that the important landmarks in the political history of Gorakhpur in the no authorized version of the Mahatma could have been handed down period up to 1919-20.15 These saw the involvement of a wide range of to the peasants, either by 'local leaders' or by members of the District the district's population. Former pargana chiefs—rajas and ranis, Congress Committees. The spate of boat-looting incidents in Muzaf- members of the dominant landed lineages, schoolmasters, postmasters farpur, Darbhanga, Rae Bareli and Fyzabad in early 1921 in the name and naib-taksildarSy middle-caste Ahir and tenants—all 'rallied of Gandhi was clear proof of a distincdy independent interpretation round the Cow' (although the last two did so with ideas quite of his message.12 Blaming agent provocateurs for misleading 'the different from the rest).16 The developments in the first twenty years poor ignorant peasants'13 into committing these acts would, therefore, of the present century relied on rausa and trader support but drew in be to turn a blind eye to the polysemic nature of the Mahatma myths the intelligentsia, religious preachers and sections of the rural popu­ and rumours, as well as to miss out the stamp these carried of a lation as well. Gorakhpur neither witnessed widespread agitation many-sided response of the masses to current events and their cultural, against the Rowlatt Acts, as had happened in the Punjab, nor did a moral and political concerns. Kisan Sabha movement of the Awadh type develop in this region. In existing literature the peasants of eastern UP and Bihar are often The Gaurakshini Sabhas of Gorakhpur in their attempt at selective portrayed as more superstitious than those of some other regions social reform anticipated the 'Sewa Samitis' and 'Hitkarini Sabhas'— such as western UP and Punjab. We have seen that according to the Social Service Leagues—of the early twentieth century. A mammoth editor of the Pioneer, 'the very simple people of the east and south of meeting of the Gorakhpur sabha held at Lar on 18 March 1893 laid the United Provinces afford[ed] a fertile soil in which a belief in the down rules for different castes regarding the maximum number of powers of the "Mahatmaji" . . . [might] grow'. In a recent piece of haratis (members of the bridegroom's party) to be entertained at a sociological writing the metaphor of 'fertile soil' seems to have been wedding and the amount of money to be spent on the tilak taken literally. In eastern UP, writes P. C. Joshi, summing up his ceremony—all in an effort to cut down 'foolish expenditure on experience of field work in the area, the 'very fertility of soil had marriages'. Observance of proper high-caste rituals was also stressed. minimized the role of human effort', as a result of which ' and Thus it was made obligatory for 'all dwija castes (i.e. , magic permeated every sphere and occasion of life'.14 Whether rice and )... to recite the gayatri mantra at the three growing areas dependent on monsoon rains are more superstitious divisions of the day', and he who failed in this was to 'be expelled than canal-fed wheat growing tracts is a question which need not from the brotherhood'.17 Contributions 'for the protection of the detain us here. Instead I propose, very briefly, to sketch those Gao Mata' (Mother Cow) were also made compulsory for every features of the political history of Gorakhpur in the late nineteenth Hindu household on pain of exclusion from caste. Rule 4 of the Lar and early twentieth centuries which throw some light on the specific sabha stated that 'each household [should] every day contribute from response of the area to Gandhi's visit in . its food supply one chutki [handful], equivalent to one paisa, per member', and that 'the eating of food without setting apart the chutki II [should] be an offence equal to that of eating a cow's flesh'. Women The spread of Gaurakshini Sabhas (Cow Protection Leagues) in the 1890s and the subsequent growth of the Nagri movement, Hindi ,s On the cow-protection movement in eastern UP and Bihar see John R. McLane, journalism and Hindu social reform in the 1910s appear to have been Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress (Princeton, 1977), Pt iv; Sandria B. Freitag, 'Sacred Symbol as Mobilizing Ideology: The North Indian Search for a 12 See Bihar and Orissa Legislative Assembly Debates, 28 Feb: 1921, i, p. 279; "Hindu" Community', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22 (1980), pp. Stephen Henningham, Peasant Movements in Colonial India. North Bihar, 1917-42 597-625; Gyan Pandey, 'Rallying Round the Cow: Sectarian Strife in the Bhojpur (Canberra, 1982), pp. 98-9; Kapil Kumar, 'Peasants' Movement in Oudh, 1918-1922' region, c. 1888-1917', in R. Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies II (Delhi, 1983). (Ph.D. thesis, University, 1979), pp. 154-7. 16 Pandey, 'Rallying Round the Cow'. 13 J. Nehru, An Autobiography (Delhi, n.d.), p. 61. 17 'Note on the Cow-protection Agitation in the ', c. 1893, 14 P. C. Joshi, 'Fieldwork Experience: Relived and Reconsidered. The Agrarian L/P&J/6/365, India Office Records. This document is also discussed in Freitag and Society of ', Journal of Peasant Studies, 8:4 (July 1981), p. 470. Pandey. 296 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 297 were to be 'instructed as to the contribution of chutki in proper from the rajas of , Tamkuhi and Majhauli, as well as some fashion with due regard to pardah'.1* from the prominent rausa of Gorakhpur.22 In the following year Again, the power of panchayats was brought to bear upon Gauri Shankar Misra, who was later to be an important figure in the 'remorselessly .[to] boycott' those who sold cows or bullocks to UP Kisan Sabha, brought out a new monthly—Prabhakar— from Muslims or butchers. It seems that these panchayats were of two Gorakhpur. Its object was to 'serve the cause (sewa) of Hindi, Hindu kinds. In the 'Cow Courts' of 'whose proceedings . . and '. However, the journal ceased publication within a were a somewhat flattering imitation of the proceedings in the year;23 only Gyan Skakti remained, and even this closed down Magistrate's Courts' it was generally the zamindars who acted as between and . The full impact of Hindi judges.19 In certain other cases, as in that of a 'respectable Hindu journalism was not felt in Gorakhpur until 1919. In April and August farmer' of Sagri pargana of that district in June 1893, a less formal and of that year two important papers—the weekly Swadesh and the more militant boycott was undertaken by the peasants themselves. monthly Kavi—made their appearance.24 These, especially Dasrath To quote Gyan Pandey: Dwivedi's Swadesh•, were to exercize an important influence in Villagers gathered at... [the house of Lakshman Paure], pulled d6wn tiles spreading the message of Gandhi over the region. from the roof, smashed his earthern vessels, stopped the irrigation of his In the 1910s movements and organizations of Hindi, Hindu culture sugarcane field, prohibited Kahars from carrying sweets which were needed for his daughter's entry into her bridegroom's house and slapped and social reform—'nagri sabhas', 'pathshalas' (vernacular schools), Lakshman, adding the threat that the house would be looted and he 'gaushalas' (asylums for cattle), 'sewa samitis' (social service leagues) himself killed if he did not get the bullock back.20 and 'sudharak sabhas' (reform associations) of various sorts provided the support and cover for nationalist activity in Gorakhpur. Each The 'Gandhi Panchayats' of the early organized by local type of these socio-political movements served nationalism in its own volunteers meted out punishment similar to what Lakshman Paure of way; but there was a considerable amount of overlapping in their the village of Pande Kunda had received in 1893. However, in the functions and interests. In a branch of the Bhartiya Sewa spring of 1921 when all was charged with magic, any mental or Samiti which had M. M. Malaviya for its head was established in physical affliction (kasht) suffered by persons found guilty of violating Deoria.25 A number of 'sudharak' and 'gram hitkarini sabhas' (village panchayat decisions adopted in Gorakhpur villages in the Mahatma's betterment societies) and subsidiary branches of the sewa samitis name was often perceived as evidence of Gandhi's extraordinary were established in the smaller towns and bigger villages of the region powers, indeed as something providential and supernatural rather during 1919-20. The inspiration usually came from the local notables than as a form of chastisement devised by a human agency.21 and pleaders at the tahsil and pargana headquarters, though sometimes Hindi was officially adopted as the language of the courts of law in appeals in the Swadesh for the setting up of community organizations UP in 1900. Soon after, the Nagri pracharini (Hindi propagation) also bore fruit. At these sabhas, heads of Hindu religious trusts movement began to pick up momentum in Gorakhpur as well. In (mahants) and celibates (brahmcbans) from nearby ashrams or 1913 the local branch of the sabha agitated successfully for judicial itinerant preachers (pracharaks) from neighbouring districts and from forms to be printed in Hindi, and in September 1914 Gyan , a Banaras discoursed on way of life and its rituals. Yagya literary journal devoted to 'Hindi and Hindu prachar', was published by a pro-government Sanskrit scholar with financial support 22 Arjun Tiwari, 'Poorvi Uttar Pradesh mein Hindi Patrakarita ka Udbhav aur vikas' (Ph.D. thesis, Gorakhpur University, 1978), pp. 37, 49-50; Statement of Newspapers and Periodicals Published in U.P. during 1920 and 1921, entry under 18 Rules 4 and 16. For analogous alms and subscriptions in the name of Gandhi, see Gyan Shakti. pp. 46-7 below. 23 Tiwari, pp. 107-8. 19 Offg. Commr. Banaras to Chief Sec., NWP & Oudh, 29 Sept. 1893, cited in 24 Statement of Newspapers and Periodicals . . . U.P., 1920, 1921. McLane, p. 311. 25 See Note on 'The Sewa Samiti Movement in the United Provinces', by 20 Pandey,'Rallying Round die Cow'. P. Biggane of the CID, dated 18 Dec. 1919, GAD File 604 of 1920, UP, State Archives, 21 For a detailed discussion, see section VI below. . Gandhi as Mahatma 299 298 Selected Subaltern Studies reunion with his brother, Bharat). After ten days of activity during (sacrifice) was performed; a Sanskrit pathshala and a gaushala endowed the Dussehra fortnight, yet another meeting was held. Again presided with financial support from traders, arrangements made for the over by the local raees, it was attended by 1,500 people including the orderly running of and melas, and panchayats set up for the babus of nearby Balua. However, on this occasion speakers from 26 arbitration of disputes. Gorakhpur town gave a different direction to the deliberations. The Thus, the fourth annual convention of the Sanskrit Pathshala, editor of Swadesh spoke on council boycott, and others on sewa 'supported by the zamindars and peasants' of tappa Belhar in Basti dharma and commercial matters. A decision was taken unanimously district, was the occasion for launching a 'Belhar tappa Hindu Sabha' to open a 'swatantra pathshala'—an independent school unaffiliated for which more than 300 from some twenty-five neighbouring to the government—with the spinning of khaddar yarn specified as villages had gathered at mauza Kotiya on 23 . The an important part of its curriculum.29 proceedings started with the chanting of Vedic sacrificial mantras, Traditional Hindu religious discourses addressed to large congre­ and after deliberating on the progress of Sanskrit education in the gations lasting several days at a time were also put to a similar use on locality, Pragyachakshu Dhan Raj Shastri discoursed on samskar, some occasions: especially upanayan samskar. A Brahmchari from who for the In mauza Gointha, Post Office (Azamgarh) the discourse of Pt past five months had been 'reciting continuously' from the Maha- Ramanueraha Sharma, dharmopdeshak, went on for ten days. Many bharata, the , etc. followed with a powerful speech on thousands turned up for these lectures. After the last lecture he organized cow protection. It was resolved that only those who were prepared a Vedic yagya and many indigents and Brahmins were feasted. He also properly to look after the welfare of Brahmani bulls (sand) should get established a Bharat Hitaishi Sabha to which both Hindus and Muslims them branded; those unable to do so should, as an alternative, have contributed 5 punches and 2 sarpanches each .... Many cases have been settled [out of regular courts].30 contribute to the sabha for other religious deeds on a scale ranging from Rs 1.5 to 5 according to their means. The 'most important and Caste sabhas could undergo interesting transformations as well. topical resolution' passed at this sabha was 'that in every village of Thus on 12 a Bhumihar Mandal was Belhar tappa, a . . . panchayat consisting of five persons [should] be established at Bhiti village in the tahsil of Gorakhpur; its established and a big panchayat... set up for the tappa as a whole'.27 'object was to encourage unity and propagate satyagraha by revealing The evolution of the Sudharak Sabha at about the same the [true] character of Sri Ramchandraji'.31 Similarly, in a great many time indicates how those who were active in the promotion of Hindu cases lower and middle-caste panchayats imposed novel dietary taboos culture could also be prompdy induced to espouse the cause of as a part of the widespread movement of self-assertion which was also Non-Co-operation. Pipraich was the seat of an important market exemplified by acts such as the refusal of their women to work as town owned by the pro-government Jawwad Ali Shah of Gorakhpur housemaids or the withholding of begar (forced labour) both from city. A railway town, it was an important centre of the grain and the sarkar and the zamindar. A correspondent from Naugarh in Basti sugar trade which was mosdy in the hands of Hindu traders.28 A district wrote to the Swadesh: sudharak sabha was formed on 21 October 1920 at a meeting of 300 The sweepers, washermen and barbers of this place met in panchayats of presided over by the local raees, Babu Munni Lai. The Sabha handled their various biradaris on 27 . They have decided that anyone the arrangements for the Dussehra mela (fair) and the subsequent who partakes of meat, fish and liquor would be punished by the biradari festivities of Bharat-milap (based on the story of the exiled Rama's 29 Swadesh, 31 Oct., 7 Nov., and 19 Dec. 1920. Babus: members of the dominant 26 Details of these activities are scattered through the 1920 volume of the Swadesh. local lineage of a tappa. 27 Notice by Chandra Bah Visharad, B.A., in Swadesh, 14 Nov. 1920, p. 9. Unless 30 Swadesh, 11 Sept. 1919, p. 11. Ramanugraha Sharma, resident of Bhelia (), stated otherwise, translations from the local Hindi journals are my own. Tappa is a had followed diis procedure in Shahabad, Pipraich and Paina, near grouping of villages, widi the chief village as the seat of the dominant local landed Barhaj in present day . Set Swadesh, 4 , p. 8,1 Aug, pp. 10-11, lineage. 30 Oct. 1920, p. 7. Punch: member of a panchayat; Sarpanch: head of a panchayat. 28 See Statement of Bazar Collections at Pipraich, File I-A13-1917, Gkp. Collector's 31 Swadesh, 19 Dec. 1920, p. 8. Rec. Room. 300 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 301 (brotherhood) and would have to donate Rs 51 to the gaushala. The is that members of this caste of leather workers also pledged them­ Dhobis and Barbers have also decided not to wash the clothes and cut the hair of any of their patrons who partakes of meat, fish and liquor.32 selves not to trade in hides and skins and to discourage young boys from taking up their ancestral profession.37 In western and central A widespread boycott of meat and liquor 'due to the efforts of a UP, Chamars were refusing to skin carcasses and perform begar for Bengali sadhu' was reported from Padrauna in Gorakhpur ih early the landlords and were 'allowing their women less liberty of 33 1921, though caste panchayats played a role in this instance as well. movement',38 an euphemism for the withdrawal of female labour It must be emphasized that the very act of self-purification on the from the homes of the upper castes. part of the ritually impure amounted, in some instances, to a reversal of the signs of subordination. 'All low caste Hindus, except those Ill who are Bhagats or vegetarians by vow, almost without exception eat meat', observed a local ethnographer of Gorakhpur in the late nine­ Gorakhpur in 1920 was no stronghold of the Congress or the teenth century.34 For them, especially the sweepers, washermen and independent Kisan Sabhas. In fact the relative backwardness of the untouchable agricultural labourers, to give up meat in 1920 was not entire region comprising Gorakhpur, Basti and Azamgarh districts simply an instance of 'Sanskritization'. Thus at a sabha held in was lamented repeatedly by the editor of the Congress weekly, October 1920 the Chamars of (central UP) had decided to Swadesh, and the main reason for this was thought to be the absence forsake meat as well as liquor and other intoxicants; but they were of an effective and dedicated leadership.39 Political meetings in also very forthright in their refusal to do begar for the district officials Gorakhpur city and in important market towns like Deoria and on tour. As they said in a petition addressed to the Governor on that Barhaj Bazar picked up from July-, as the campaign for occasion: 'We are ready to perform any legitimate services required council elections by the rajas, rausa and vakla was sought to be of us appertaining to our profession but inhuman treatment, meted countered by challenging the bona fides of 'oppressive landlords' out to a Chamar every day, by petty servants of the thana and tahsil is and 'self-seeking pleaders'. Open letters appeared in the columns of nothing short of a festering sore'.35 Swadesh highlighting the oppression suffered by peasants in the By early 1922 indications of a 'growing restlessness among the . . . bigger zarnindaris and challenging the presumption of the rajas to [Chamars]. . . arising out of the general spirit of revolt' were reaching be the natural spokesmen of their praja (subjects). At a public the police headquarters in the districts. The movement for 'self-reform' meeting of the newly-formed Voters' Association in Deoria the now revealed 'a tendency to forsake hereditary callings' as well.36 The representative of a landlord candidate was faced with the charge eight resolutions passed at a large meeting of the Chamars of that his patron's command of English was inadequate for him to 40 Azamgarh in followed the standard pattern of caste follow the proceedings of the legislative council. But increasingly, reform in their concern about the prevalence of child marriage and the boycott of council elections and, after the Nagpur Congress co-habitation out of wedlock, and in the interdictions they imposed on (December 1920) the propagation of Non-Co-operation, was being toddy, liquor and animal sacrifice. What is perhaps equally significant written up and broadcast as a part of the spiritual biography of Mahatma Gandhi. In a powerful editorial, prominently displayed M Swadesh, 6 Feb. 1921, p. 8. by Swadesh on the front page on 11 November and reprinted the 33 Idem. 34 Note by Ram Gharib Chaube on 'Eating Meat', William Crooke Papers, MS 131, next week, Dasrath Dwivedi appealed to the local electorate in bold Museum of Mankind, London. typeface: 35 Extracted in Harcourt Butler to Chief Sec, UP, 26 Oct. 1920, GAD File 694 of 1920; Swadesh, 10 Oct. 1920, p. 1. For a discussion of the assertive nature of 37 Report of the Chamar conference held at Gopalpur village, thana Madhuban, middle-caste movements in early twentieth century eastern UP, see Pandey, 'Rallying district Azamgarh, Swadesh, 8 Jan. 1922, p. 6. Round the Cow'. See also David Hardiman's essay on the movement in the 38 PAI, 1 . present volume. 39 36 See Swadesh, 18 , pp. 13-14,23 May, p. 9, 15 Aug., p. 14. UP Police Abstracts of Intelligence (PAI), 1 April 1922. 40 See Swadesh, 16 May, 6-June, 4 and 18 July 1920. 302 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 303 OH YOU VOTERS OF THE ! HAVE presided over it and Gauri Shankar Misra was the main speaker. The SOME SELF RESPECT. BEWARE OF THE OBSEQUIOUS meeting resolved to support the cause of those arrested in connection STOOGES! BE SURE WHO IS YOUR GENUINE WELLWISHER! with the Khilafat agitation, pronounced asahyog (Nori-Co-operation) MAHATMA GANDHI, PT MOTILAL NEHRU, PT MALVIYAJI or to the uchit (proper) and decided to send a telegraphic invitation to those who are now running after you, begging for your votes? Think for 43 yourself; what good have the latter done for you so far that you may now Gandhi and the Ali brothers to visit Gorakhpur at an early date. expect them to help remove your sorrows and sufferings from inside the Gandhi was also approached by the Gorakhpur delegates (prominent Council. Now cast your eyes towards Mahatma Gandhi. This pure soul amongst whom was Baba Raghav Das, successor to the spiritual (pavitra ) has sacrificed everything for you (tan-man-dhan... arpan gaddi (seat) of Anant Mahaprabhu and founder of the Paramhans kar diya bat). It is for your good that he has taken the vow of renunciation Ashram, Barhaj) at the Nagpur Congress and he told them that he (sanyas-vrat), gone to jail and encountered many a difficulty and suffering. 44 Despite being ill, he is at this moment wandering all over [the country] in would visit the district sometime in late January or early February. the service of your cause. It is the updesh of this same Mahatma Gandhi To the creed of asahyog that Raghav Das and Dasrath Dwivedi that you should not vote. And you should not vote, because approximately brought with them from Nagpur was added mounting excitement at thirty thousand of your unarmed Punjabi brethren were fired upon in the prospect of its author's advent. Propagation of the politics of , people were made to crawl on their bellies, and despite the hue Non-Co-operation in the Gorakhpur countryside in early 1921 had and cry for justice you were shoed away like dogs (tumhen dutkar diya gay a tha). And no heed was paid whatsoever. Look out. Beware. elements of a celebratory exordium, a preparing of the district for the DO NOT VOTE FOR ANYBODY.41 Big Event. The peregrinations of Raghav Das and his brahmachari followers around their ashram in Barhaj, the 'melodious Gandhi- In this text, which may be regarded as representative of the local ' sung by Changur Tripathi to a peasant assembly at Kuin 42 nationalist discourse on council boycott, the 'Punjab Wrongs' and nearby45 and the 'poetical effusions' in the first issue of a rejuvenated the callous indifference of the British are no doubt mentioned as Kavi magazine—'written with the set purpose of arousing in the reasons for not voting; but it is hard to miss the person of a saintly masses and classes alike a yearning for the quick descent of Krishna, Gandhi, resplendent in his suffering for the people and, in turn, the Messiah'46—are the few surviving fragments of this picture of requiring and even demanding their obedience to his injunctions. enthusiasm and expectation in Gorakhpur at that time. Perceived thus the boycott of elections and the rejection of loyalist An index of this popular expectation was the increase in the candidates appear as a kind of religiously prescribed abstinence from number of rumours which assigned various imaginary dates to the polling booth, analogous to the observance of proper Hindu Gandhi's visit. By the first week of January the news of his arrival had rituals and self-purification which was being propagated by many of 'spread like wild fire'. Dasrath Dwivedi, the editor of Swadesb) was the nationalist religious preachers and taken up by certain low-caste bombarded with hundreds of letters asking for the exact dates. To panchayats as well. It was to such a region, which was not unaware of allay anxiety on this score the journal printed a column on its front the peasant rioting in southern Awadh in January 1921 but had not page on 9 January assuring its readers that the date of Gandhi's arrival yet developed any comparable peasant movement of its own, that would be announced in the Aaj (Banaras), Pratap (), Gandhi came on 8 February 1921. Bhavishya (Prayag), Vartman (Kanpur); the Leader and Independent would also publish the news, while the Swadesb press would ensure The decision to invite Gandhi was taken at a public meeting held in that notices, posters and letters carried the word to all six tahsils of Gorakhpur city on 17 October 1920. Maulvi Maqsood Ali Fyzabadi the district. 41 Swadesb, 11 Nov. 1920, p. 1. 43 42 In all likelihood the Congress volunteers who were to tour the district for a Swadesb, 24 Oct. 1920: p. 11. 44 fortnight, spreading 'Gandhiji's message of council boycott', would have taken the Amodnath Tripathi, 'Poorvi Uttar Pradesh ke Jan-jeevan mein Baba Raghav Das above editorial as their central text. It seems that voting was thin in Bansgaon tahsil and ka Yogdaan' (Ph.D. thesis, University, 1981), pp. 62-7,77; Swadesb, 2 Jan. 4S at , Bridgmanganj, Pipraich and Parwapar in Maharajganj and Padrauna 1921. Tripathi, p. 78; Swadesb, 6 Feb. 1921, p. 9. 46 tahsils. See Swadesb, 14 Nov. 1920, p. 12, 12 Dec. 1920, p. 12. Statement of Newspapers and Periodicals, U.P., 1921, p. 33. 304 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 305 Meanwhile the District Congress Committee (DCC) geared itself Gorakhpur', was written by one who was obviously an ardent into action. It had been decided to get a national school inaugurated nationalist disappointed at the political stupor prevailing in the region, by Gandhi, and the DCC was active on this front. Advance parties of and who felt as if his dream of Gandhi bringing about a transformation lecturers (vyakhyandata) announcing his arrival were to be dispatched was soon to be fulfilled. Addressed basically to lawyers and students to the tahsil headquarters and to , Dhakwa and Gola in the whom it urges to cast off sloth, it is also significant in its attitude densely populated southern tahsil of Bansgaon; to Rudarj5ur and towards the common people: Captainganj in the central tract of Hata; to the railway towns and Our plea is that the common people (sadharan junta) of Gorakhpur are marts of Deoria, Salempur, Majhauli, Lar, Bhatpar and Barhaj Bazar only anxiously awaiting for the darshan of the Mahatma. The Mahatma to the south-east, and to Padrauna in the north-east. Within the will arrive, the public will have darshan and will be eternally grateful for it. There will be no end to the joy of the people when they are able to feast sparsely populated northern tahsil of Maharajganj, Peppeganj and their eyes on the Mahatma. —seats of European zamindaris—and Siswa Bazar, the But what about those who are openly co-operating with the government important entrepot of gur and rice, were to be the target points. At ... don't they have some duty at this juncture... ? A voice from the heart c meetings held at these places, the visiting lecturers were to preach the says Of course!... They should kneel before Mahatma Gandhi and pray doctrine of the Congress and ask for contributions to the National to the Almighty for courage to enable them to row their boats out of the present whirlpool and into safety .... For Mahatma Gandhi to appear School Fund. In their turn the local residents were to ensure that [avteern: from avtar] before us in these difficult times is a tremendous people within a radius of ten miles attended these public discourses on boon, for us, our society and our country .... Don't vacillate, arise now to the philosophy and advent of Gandhi.47 The massive attendance at serve the oppressed brothers of your district. Blow the shankh (conch- shell) of Swaraj .... This movement is an elixir (amrit-bati) for you. the Gorakhpur sabha on 8 February and the crowds that thronged 50 the five stations on the fifty mile railway strip between Bhatni and Mahatma Gandhi is offering it to you. Gorakhpur city suggest that the news had spread widely enough. How the common people and the elite should respond to Gandhi's On 30 January the Swadesh announced that the probable date was visit is thus clearly laid out. The task of the janta is to congregate in now 8 February and requested the people of Gorakhpur to seek the large numbers, 'feast their eyes on the Mahatma', count themselves Mahatma's darshan and bring their donations with them. It also lucky, and after such brief taste of bliss return to their inert and wrote about the need for more Congress workers to come forward oppressed existence. So far as they are concerned the Mahatma is to 48 and help in supervising the arrangements. be in Gorakhpur for no other purpose than to offer them darshan. An editorial which appeared in the columns of that newspaper on 6 They are not expected to proclaim the cause of swaraj on their own. February announcing the impending arrival is a significant text and is The clarion call (written metaphorically, as shankhnaad, after the reproduced in Appendix I. Besides illustrating how the image of the blast of conch-shells used for Hindu sacred rituals) of swaraj in distinguished visitor was projected in Gorakhpur by local Congress­ villages requires only the power of elite lungs: for that rallying blast men, it is also representative of nationalist understanding of the the 'oppressed brothers' of Gorakhpur must rely on the initiative of relationship between the subaltern masses, the elite leadership and the elite followers of the Mahatma. The implication is that the Gandhi himself. Dasrath Dwivedi, the young author of this text, had peasants' pilgrimage to Gorakhpur and the mufassil stations will be been trained as a journalist on the staff of the Pratap in Kanpur and on useless from a nationalist perspective unless 'leaders' step in to channel Ganesh Vidyarthi's advice had come back to his home district in 1919 the goodwill generated in the villages as a result of Gandhi's darshan. to start his own Swadesh.49 The editorial, 'The Great Fortune of That such a journey, made often in defiance of landlord opposition,

47 could in itself be a political.act and that Gandhi's message might be Swadesh, 9 Jan. 1921, p. 11; see also Appx II below. decoded by the common villager on his own, without prompting by 48 Swadesh, 30 Jan. 1921. *' The circulation of the paper in early 1921 was 3,500, though according to official outsiders, were possibilities not entertained by Dasrath Dwivedi at estimates it dropped to 2,300 in the course of that year. See Tiwari, p. 558; Statement 50 'Gorakhpur ka Ahobhagya', Swadesh, 6 Feb. 1921. Emphasis mine. of Newspapers etc., U.P., 1921, entry under Swadesh. 306 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 307 this time. Yet a perusal of local news published by him in subsequent Among the peasants who had come all the way from their villages for months shows that these were the lines along which popular response Gandhi-darshan on this occasion, there were many who would again to the Mahatma's visit expressed itself. in a year's time—in —march past the Chauri Chaura Apart from this the imagery, feeling and metaphors used by railway station to the adjacent thana as participants in another fateful Dwivedi to convince educated waverers about the greatness of Gandhi event. Indeed, at the trial of the peasant-rioters of Chauri Chaura, and convert them to his cause are of interest in themselves. At this some of those who acted as witnesses for the prosecution found it level there is no significant difference between the religiosity informing necessary to try and offer an innocuous explanation of their presence the peasants and the attitude Dwivedi wants the intelligentsia to among the crowd at the station on 8 February 1921. As Shankar adopt towards Gandhi; the language of belief seems to be the same in Dayal Rae, a prosperous contractor of the locality, put it to the both instances with merely some variations in tone and accent. The Sessions Judge in : 'I never before went to the station to italicized portions of the extract quoted above testify to the religious, meet any rajnaitik (political) leader—to Gorakhpur or Chaura— indeed devotional nature of Dwivedi's writings. The boat and boatman except that I went to pay my respects to Gandhiji when he passed imagery occurs frequently in rural and urban devotional songs. As through Chaura in the train.'53 The devotion of the Gorakhpuri Susan Wadley notes in her study of popular religion in a village in peasants to the Mahatma seems to have acquired a militant edge. western UP, 'many . . . devotional songs use the whirlpool analogy According to Mahadev Desai's account of the return journey from for a crisis situation, along with other nautical imagery (the ocean of Gorakhpur, darshan was now demanded almost as a right: existence, boat, boatman, ferry across, the far side, etc.)'.31 The train started from Gorakhpur at 8.30 p.m. at night.... It was a train Gandhi's visit to Gorakhpur was well organized and the gatherings that halted at every station .... Hordes and hordes of people began to rush upon our compartment.... At every station peasants with long long of people on that occasion were truly phenomenal. An advance party lathis and torches in their hands would come to us and raise cries loud of Gorakhpur Congressmen had been sent to Bhatni junction at the enough to split the very drums of our ears. Of course, all of us in the south-eastern edge of the district, and the train by which he travelled compartment were making as many appeals for quiet as we possibly made its way very slowly through, stopping at every railway station could. But whoever would care to listen to us? . . . where people had assembled for darshan. As Shyam Dhar Misra who Many of these devotees do not even know how their 'Mahatma Gandhi' looks like. A few of them thrust themselves into our compartment, and led the reception party reported in Swadesh: began to bawl out, 'Who is Mahatma Gandhiji?' 'Who is Mahatma At Bhatni Gandhiji addressed (updesh diya) the local public and then the Gandhiji?' I got desperate and said T. They were satisfied, bowed down train started for Gorakhpur. There were not less than 15 to 20,000 people to me and left the compartment! What a difference between my pre- at Nunkhar, Deoria, , Chauri Chaura and Kusmhi [stations]. sumptuousness and these people's untainted love! But it was no use ... At Deoria there were about 35-40,000 people. Mahatmaji was .very getting enchanted with that guileless love .... pleased to witness the scene at Kusmhi, as despite the fact that the station Any sleep for Gandhiji in the midst of this uproar was out of question .. is in the middle of a jungle there were not less than 10,000 people even . . The people's hathagraha (mule-like obstinacy) was repeated at each here. Some, overcome with their love, were seen to be crying. At Deoria and every station that came after Bhatni: At last even Gandhiji's endurance people wanted to give bhent [donations] to Gandhiji, but he asked them and tolerance was exhausted .... He began to entreat the people 'Please to give these at Gorakhpur. But at Chauri Chaura one Marwari gentleman go away. Why do you harass us at this dark hour?' He was answered only managed to hand something over to him. Then there was no stopping. A by sky-rending shouts of victory to him! . . . That was the height of the sheet was spread and currency notes and coins started raining. It was a people's love-mad insolence . .. .** sight .... Outside the Gorakhpur station the Mahatma was stood on a high carriage and people had a good darshan of him for a couple of IV 52 minutes. If this was the way in which the peasants reacted to Gandhi, how was 51 Susan Wadley, 'Power in Hindu Ideology and Practice', in K. David (ed.), The his message understood by them? Were there any ambiguities in what New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia (The Hague: , 1977), p. 144, n. 17. 53 sz Evidence of Shankar Dayal Rae, Chauri Chaura Trials (Sessions Judge), p. 508. Swadesh, 13 Feb. 1921, p. 3. 54 Desai, pp. 263-6. 308 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 309 Gandhi said or was believed to have said? If so, what implications did is a peaceful struggle. Only after I retire to the Himalayas can it become a these have for peasant beliefs about Gandhi as revealed in the 'stories' violent struggle. Our fight should be like the one put up by our Sikh about his power? brethren in Taran Taran .... They did not seek revenge against their oppressors .... This is our way, this the asahyog dharma, this is real The main thrust of Gandhi's speeches at the 'massive gatherings of Brahmacharya. This is dharma. And today this is the dharma of peasants' in Fyzabad and Gorakhpur was to condemn the recent acts the Musalmans. To go against it is to commit a sin ... . of peasant violence and rioting in southern Awadh. As Mahadev Right now we should forget about 'social boycott'. The time has not yet Desai recounts in his diaries of this period: arrived for such actions. Nobody should prevent any brother from going to the burial ground, nobody is to prevent anybody from the use of the Gandhiji had only one message to give them, viz. those big sticks [lathis] services of barbers or to have chilum [i.e. ganja] and liquor. In fact we were not to be used for killing or injuring anybody. The same thing was want to rid everybody of chilum and booze (daru)." If all of you give up preached at Fyzabad also. Gandhiji's utterances were devoted exclusively [these things] today then we shall attain swaraj straightaway .... to the outbreaks of robbery, villainy and rioting that had taken place in 55 [Congratulating Gorakhpur on its organization of this meeting Gandhi the United Provinces. continued] The real result of your organizational abilities and your work This was indeed so, but a close reading of his speech at Gorakhpur would be seen when in Gorakhpur lawyers give up their practice, schools no longer remain sarkari [i.e. affiliated to the government], titles are given suggests that it had enough ambiguity in it to cause semantic slides. up, no drinkers, no whoremongers, no gamblers remain in your district. After a laudatory poem written by the Hindi poet 'Trishul' and read When every house has a charkha and all the julahas of Gorakhpur start by Dasrath Dwivedi, Gandhi started his speech to ? mammoth weaving [hand-spun yam].... You should produce so much khaddar in gathering of over 1.5 lakhs, which included a 'fairly large number of Gorakhpur that you people don't have to go to , to Bombay 56 or Kanpur [for your cloth].... illiterates and rustics', as follows: I would request you to be patient and listen to Maulana Mohammad This gathering is not the occasion for along speech. This gathering shows Ali's speech and carry on donating money to the volunteers. Please refrain that mere is a commonality of purpose amongst us. The poem that was from being noisy. I want to tell you, if you follow my programme—I recited just now did not mention Mohammad Ali . . . . Now brother want to assure [you] if you do as I tell you, we shall get swaraj by the end Shaukat Ali, Mohammad Ali and I are saying the same thing .... of September. We could also get the Khilafat and the Punjab Wrongs undone by the sarkar. But this is the right [task] of only those who After stressing the need for Hindu-Muslim unity, he warmed up to accept the things discussed at the Nagpur Congress. This is not the a condemnation of peasant violence in Awadh: business of those who are not with us in our work .... From those who are not with us, but still come to our meetings, I expect that they will at What happened in Fyzabad? What happened in Rae Bareli? We should least keep the peace—we can attain swaraj by end September if God know these things. By doing what we have done with our own hands we grants us peace; if all of us Indians have the spirit of self-sacrifice and have committed a wrong, a great wrong. By raising the lakri [i.e. lathi] we 58 self-purification then 30 crore people can achieve just about anything. have done a bad thing. By looting haats and shops we have committed a wrong. We can't get swaraj by using the lakri. We cannot get swaraj by The main constitutive elements—baat in the indigenous pitting our own devilishness (shaitaniyat) against the Satanic government. parlance—of Gandhi's message to the Gorakhpur kisans could be Our 30 crore lakris are no match against their aeroplanes and guns; even if they are, even then we shall not raise our lakris. The Quran says so. arranged as follows: Brother Mohammad Ali tells me that [according to the Quran] as long as 1. Hindu-Muslims unity or ekta. the raising of the stick is unnecessary we cannot do so ... . 2. What people should not do on their own: use lathis; loot bazaars and Our kisan brothers have committed a mistake. They have caused great haats; enforce social boycott ('naudhobi band'). anguish to my brother Jawahar Lai. If further difficulties [of this sort] are put in our way then you shall see that that very day it would become 57 The words used were 'Koi kisi bhai ko kabristan jane se na roke, koi kisi ko impossible for Gandhi to live in Hindustan. I shall have to do penance—this hajjam, chilum aur daru se na roke'. Chilum is an earthenbowl for smoking tobacco, ss but is understood in popular parlance to refer to ganja smoking. It seems that Gandhi Ibid., p. 267. For a detailed discussion of Gandhi's 'Instructions' to die is here using the word chilum to refer to ganja, but this can also be understood to be an peasants at Fyzabad, see Pandey, 'Peasant Revolt and Indian Nationalism'. S6 injunction against smoking as such. Gyan Shakti, Feb. 1921, p. 407. 58 Translated from the verbatim report published in Swadesh, 13 Feb. 1921, p. 6. 310 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 311 3. What the Mahatma wants his true followers to do: stop gambling, ganja-smoking, drinking and whoring. The enforcement of social boycott was not widespread yet; it was to pick 4. Lawyers should give up their practice; government schools should up only from late 1921. Meanwhile, that is immediately in die wake of be boycotted; official rides should be given up. Gandhi's visit, people, acting on their own or through their panchayats 5. People should take up spinning and weavers should accept hand- and sabhas, were still involved in efforts at self-purification, extending spun yarn. and transforming his message on this theme. It is with the intervention 6. Imminence of swaraj: its realization conditional on innate strength of the supernatural in this process and the Mahatma's role in it that most of numbers when matched with peace, grace of God, self-sacrifice and self-purification. of the Gorakhpur 'stories' are concerned. To these we now turn. This sequential summary of Gandhi's speech is an attempt to V reconstruct the way in which his utterances might have been discussed The feeling of devotion towards Gandhi in Gorakhpur was commented in the villages of Gorakhpur. It is reasonable to assume that such on in glowing terms in the nationalist press. Dasrath Dwivedi wrote discussions would proceed by breaking up his message into its major in an editorial about the 'fantastic flow of ' (devotion) caused ideological constituents.59 If the practice, which is current even by the Mahatma's visit. Mahavir Prasad Poddar, a Gorakhpuri today, of communicating printed news in the countryside is any merchant resident in Calcutta and a popular retailer of Swadeshi- guide, then in all likelihood the main points of that speech summarized sugar of yesteryears,60 elaborated on this theme thus in the columns from the version published in Swadesh was conveyed to the illiterate of the Swadesh: peasants in the local dialect. It had not occurred to us in our wildest dreams that the same Gorakhpur It will be seen that baat no. 4 does not greatly concern the peasants. which was politically dormant would suddenly wake up like this. A No. 1 is very general and figures only marginally in the Gandhi crowd of 2-2V2 lakhs for the darshan of Gandhiji is no ordinary thing. It 'stories'. Baat no. 5 is, in part, far too specific as an instruction can probably be said that this is the biggest crowd that has ever gathered addressed exclusively to weavers, while the advice in favour of for the darshan of the Mahatma .... But let no one think that this vast multitude came like sheep, inspired by blind faith (andhbhakti) and went spinning might have sounded rather too general, lacking as it did an back empty handed. Those with eyes can see that the darshan of 'Gandhi infrastructure to make it feasible at this stage. It is the conflation of Mahatam' (diis is the phrase used in villages) have not been in vain. The baats no. 3 and no. 6, and its contexualization within the existing janta came with devotion {bhakti) in their hearts and returned with ideas about 'power' and magic, which lay at the root of some of the feelings and ideas (bhav). The name of Guru-Gandhi has now spread in all 'stories' relating to the Mahatma in Gorakhpur. It seems that the four corners of the district.... But roses have thorns as well .... A zamindar of the city had it complimentarity of his negative advice with regard to popular militancy proclaimed in his ilaqa that anyone going for Gandhi's darshan would be (baat no. 2) and the positive actions enjoined on the 'true followers' fined Rs 25 and receive twenty-five shoe-beatings to boot.... The people (baat no. 3)—the complimentarity, so to say, of the do's and don'ts in of this area wrung their hands in despair A Ramlila procession goes in these particular messages, was (pace Mahadev Desai) largely lost on front of the house with so much fanfare and the children are locked up in the attic! ... I know there are other creatures like the above-mentioned his rustic audience. On the other hand baats no. 3 and 6 came to be 61 associated in the popular mind as a linked set of spiritual command­ raees in this district. ments issued by a god-like personage. As such these were consistent Here is a far better understanding of the impact of that visit than we with those legends about his 'divinity' which circulated at the time. have so far encountered in nationalist prose. The janta does not just have bhakti; seeing and hearing the Mahatma also inspires bhav, a 59 For an example of one such breaking up of Gandhi's message to the peasants into word suggestive not merely of feelings and ideas but of urge to action main (mukhya) baats, see 'Kisanon ko Mahatma Gandhi ka amritmay sandesh', as well.62 The laudatory poem read as a welcome address to Gandhi Abhyudaya, 18 Feb. 1931, p. 19. For an extended use of the term baat, and its use as an organizing principle in the narrative of Bhojpuri fables, see George A. Grierson, Seven had ended on the note: Grammars of the Dialects and Subdialects of the Bihari Language etc., Pt. II (Calcutta, 60 Swadesh, 20 , p. 4. " Swadesh, 27 Feb. 1921. 1884), pp. 102ff. 62 I am grateful to Veena Das for diis suggestion. 312 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 313 jaan dalega yahan aap ka aana ab to; log dekhenge ki badla hai an Anglo-Indian—who had dozed off while reading a newspaper at zamana abto... railway station in woke up from a nightmare at aap ayehain yahan jaan hi aae samjho, goya Gorakh ne dhuni phir 11 p.m. and ran towards a cluster of bungalows occupied by the hai ramai samjho.63 English and some Indian railway officers shouting: 'Man, run, man! By February 1921 times had indeed changed, beyond the 'wildest Gandhi is marching at the head of several strong Indians decimating dreams' of Poddar: a new life was already infused into a 'politically the English'. This caused a panic and all the local white population dormant' Gorakhpur—a regeneration brought about by, as it were, emerged from their bedrooms in a state of undress and ran towards the powerful tapasya of , the eponymous founder of the the station. The key to the armoury at the station was asked for, but city. Gandhi's advent was perceived as a major event by the zamindars could not be found as the officer-in-charge was away. English women who had sought forcibly to prevent their peasants from seeking his were locked up in boxes and almirahs, and some Englishmen were darshan. It was for them an event which stood out of the flow of heard saying, 'Man! The cries of "jai jai" are still reaching our ears. We quotidian existence and as such threatened to bring about displace­ shall not go back to our bungalows'. In the morning Indians who ments in the local power structures. The analogy of eager children heard of this incident in the city had a good laugh at this example of being denied the joy of participation in an important religious pro­ English self-confidence (atmik-bal).6* This story, first published in cession was apt, for it suggests in the landlords a cruel paternalism the Banaras daily Aaj and then in Swadesh, is illustrative of the wider designed to prevent any subversion of the relationships of dominance tendency of the times to berate British power and boost Indian and subordination which constituted the stuff of everyday life in the prowess by contrast.66 The British emerge in tales of this kind as a countryside. The enthusiasm Gandhi generated, the expectations he weak-kneed race, mortally afraid of the non-violent Mahatma. aroused and the attack he launched on British authority had all Other stories to appear in the press just prior to and immediately combined to initiate the very first moments of a process which, given after his arrival were about a lawyer of Deoria who was cursed by a other factors, could help the peasant to conceptualize the turning of follower of Gandhi for going back on his promise to give up legal his world upside down. This was an incipient political consciousness practice and had his house polluted with shit; about a high-caste called upon, for the very first time, to reflect—albeit vaguely and woman who suffered the same polluting fate after she had denied a intermittently—on the possibility of an inversion of many of those young boy a blanket to protect him from the cold when he wanted to power relations deemed inviolable until then, such as British/Indian, go to the station at night to seek darshan; about a Kahar who tried to landlord/peasant, high-caste/low-caste, etc. This process of con­ test the Mahatma's power with a foolish wish and came out the worse ceptualization was set in train that spring in Gorakhpur by a clash for it; and about a Pandit who sought to defy Gandhi by insisting on between the ordinary and the extraordinary, between the habitual eating fish only to find it crawling with worms. These stories have the and the contingent—a clash triggered off directly by the Mahatma's same sequential and structural characteristics as many others reported visit.64 VI 65 Stories about Gandhi's occult powers first appeared in the local press 'Swapn mein Mahatma Gandhi: Angrez nange bhage', writer Banwari Lai Sewak, Swadesh, 30 Jan. 1921 (extracted from Aaj). in late January 1921. An issue of Swadesh which announced his 66 Thus Mohammad Ali addressing the Gorakhpur meeting on 8 February after arrival in the district also carried a report under the heading: 'Gandhi Gandhi, concluded his speech with the following exhortation: 'We should only be in dream: Englishmen run away naked'. A loco-driver—presumably afraid of Allah, and no one else. No Deputy Commissioner was sent saddled with his office from the house of God. No midwife ever said that the child-to-be-born would 63 Swadesh, 13 Feb. 1921, p. 5. Your coming here will enliven this place; people become a Commissioner, or a Viceroy. Even the Collector and Commissioner of will notice how times have changed; you coming vinually brought back life to this Gorakhpur, even Sir Harcourt Butler must have emerged from their mothers' wombs place and Gorakhpur has bounced back to life and pride. as innocent babes, like the rest of us. Therefore [don't be afraid], have faith in Allah, 64 The argument in this paragraph owes a lot to discussions with Bernard Cohn and keep the peace, all thirty crores work the charkha—you shall get swaraj in six month's Ranajit Guha. time'. Reported in Swadesh, 13 Feb. 1921, p. 8. 314 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 315 from Gorakhpur. Taken together and classified according to their 5. On 13 April a karahi was being set up as an offering to the motifs, they may be said to fall into four fairly distinct groups:67 Mahatma. The wife of one thakur saheb said that she would A. Testing the power of the Mahatma. offer karahi to the Mahatmaji only if there were some miracles B. Opposing the Mahatma. performed. Suddenly a dhoti hanging on a peg caught fire and C. Opposing the Gandhian creed in general and with respect to was reduced to ashes, although there was no smell of burning 71 dietary, drinking and smoking taboos. whatsoever. 'I have seen this with my own eyes'. D. Boons granted and/or miracles performed in the form of 6. A reader of Swadesh from Barhaj wrote: 'Two chamars while recovery of things lost and regeneration of trees and wells. digging were having a discussion about the murti (idol, image) that had emerged in Bhore village (Saran). One of them ... said A. Testing the Power of the Mahatma . . . "only if a murti emerges at that site as well will I accept that 1. Sikandar Sahu of thana Mansurganj, mauza Mahuawa (Dist. the one at Bhore is calling out for Gandhi". By a coincidence, Basti) said on 15 February that he would believe in the Mahatmaji while digging, a murti of Mahadev came out. On hearing the when the karah (boiling pan) full of cane-juice in his karkhana news people rushed for darshan, and -paath was done and split into two. The karah split in two in the middle!68 offerings made. People are of the opinion that the cash offered 2. On 18 February a Kahar (domestic servant; palanquin bearer) should be sent to the National School [fund]'. from Basantpur said that he would be prepared to believe in 7. A similar incident was reported to have happened at the well of Mahatmaji's authenticity (sacha manoonga) only when the Babu Shiv Pratap Singh of Gaura [adjacent to Barhaj]. But it thatched roof of his house was raised. The roof lifted ten cubits was said that as soon as people rushed to get the murti out of the above the wall, and fell back to its original position only when well, it disappeared. he cried and folded his hands in surrender and submission.69 8. A of mauza Rudrapur (Post Office Kamasi) had the 3. On 15 March a cultivator in mauza Sohraghat (Azamgarh) said habit of stealing grass. People tried their best to convince him that he would believe in the Mahatmaji's authenticity (sacha that Mahatma Gandhi had forbidden such evil deeds. He replied, jaane) if sesamum sprouted on 1.5 bighas of his field. Next day T shall believe in Gandhiji if when I go stealing grass at night all the wheat in that field became sesamum. 'I have seen this someone catches me, or I fall ill, go mad, or start eating gobar with my own eyes at the house of Pt Brijwasi Vakil', wrote a (cow dung)'. Strange are the ways of God: all these things correspondent. 'The ears look like that of wheat, but on rubbing happened. While stealing grass he started shouting that someone with hand, grains of sesamum come out of them'.70 was coming to catch him. He fainted. He ran a high fever. 4. Babu Bir Bahadur Sahi of mauza Reaon was getting his fields People got hold of him and took him to his house. Soon after he harvested on 15 March. In order to test the Mahatma's powers ran out and started eating gobar. When after three days his he wished for some sweets. Suddenly sweets fell on his body. family members took the manauti [i.e. pledged to propitiate Half of the sweets he distributed among the labourers and the Gandhi if the patient recovered], he started feeling better. 'As a rest he kept for himself. result of this people in the village and its neighbourhood have given up theft etc. completely'.72 67 These stories, unless otherwise stated, are taken from Swadesh, 27 Feb., p. 11; 6 March, p. 9; 13 March, p. 5; 10 April, pp. 1,11; 17 April, p. 4;24 April:pp. 11-2; 1 May, 9. Shri Balram Das of the Gorakhpur School reported, 'On p. 7 and 8 May 1921, p. 2.1 am aware mat these stories can well be classified differendy, February 26th I had gone to the Rudrapur village in Maharajganj and that a particular story can be grouped under more man one category. However, I 71 have found the above classification useful for die purposes of the present discussion. Reported by Jaikumar Singh. For die practice of karahi-offering see p. 47 68 These stories have been translated from the Hindi versions reported in Swadesh. below. 72 69 'These news items (samachar) have been sent in by Sri Sam Raj Chaudhuri of Reported in Sarju Singh. Manauti: from minnat: taking of a vow; a promise to Rajpur. He maintains diat all of diese incidents are true'. Swadesh, 27 Feb. 1921, p. 11. offer somediing (normally cash) in return for die fulfilment of a wish or the granting of 70 Reported by Shyamnand Lai. a boon. 316 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 317 tahsil to give a lecture. Everybody agreed to follow the ways of A clearer example of the power of rumours in spreading the name Mahatma Gandhi. But one character did not give up his [old] of Gandhi in villages and reorienting normal ritual actions towards habit and went to cut grass. On his return he went mad. He nationalist goals is contained in story No. 6. Of the two Chamars, broke and smashed things around him. When he offered Rs 5 in one evidendy believed in the rumour from Saran district in Bihar. But the name of Mahatmaji he quietened down (shanti hui)'.13 the other made his acceptance conditional on an extraordinary Even a cursory reading of these 'stories' suggests that two obvious occurrence taking place in the context of his immediate activity— 76 processes are at work here. First, the rumours are indicative of a digging. When as a result of coincidence his spade brought out a considerable discussion about Gandhi in the villages of Gorakhpur in murti from the ground, the Chamar (perhaps convinced of the power spring 1921. The recurring phrase, 'I shall believe in Mahatmaji only of the Mahatma) retired as the subject of the narrative. Now others, in the event of such an extraordinary happening', should be read as an who also had heard this particular rumour (further proof of which index of a dialogue between sceptics and firm believers. It makes had been unearthed in their own area), entered the scene and propitiated sense only in the context of such a discussion. the image of Mahadev in the usual way by having darshan and making Secondly, this crucial phrase also suggests that what people thought offerings of flowers and money. But it is significant that the money of the Mahatma were projections of the existing patterns of popular which would otherwise have gone towards the. construction of a beliefs about the 'worship of the worthies' in rural .74 As concrete platform at that site was earmarked as a contribution to the William Crooke has observed, the deification of such 'worthies' was National School Fund, a project with which Gandhi was directly 77 based among other things, on the purity of the life they had led and associated in Gorakhpur. on 'approved thaumaturgie powers'.75 The first of these conditions The story about finding a murti in Barhaj (No. 7) follows the line Gandhi amply satisfied by all those signs of saintliness which a of popular interpretation adopted for the previous anecdote. That god-fearing rural populace was prone to recognize in his appearance this particular rumour might have been spread deliberately by some­ as well as in his public conduct. As for thaumaturgy, the stories one, and that the idol had 'disappeared' by the time people rushed to mentioned above attribute to him magical and miraculous powers the scene, is immaterial for the purposes of the present discussion. which, in the eyes of villagers nurtured on the lore of Salim Chishti What is important is that a series of 'extraordinary occurrences' in the and Sheikh Burhan, put him on a par with other mortals on whom villages of Gorakhpur were being read in a familiar way, that is peasant imagination had conferred godliness. according to the conventions of reading the episodes in a sacred text Turning to the stories themselves we find that they are develop­ but with their religiosity overdetermined by an incipient political ments of the basic idea of the genuineness of the Mahatma as revealed consciousness. through various tests. In its simple version a test is set in the context There is an element which story No. 2 shares with No. 5—where of the immediate activity or environment of the person concerned, or the thakurain makes her offering to the Mahatma conditional on the there is the fulfilment of an expressed wish. The conditions are met occurrence of a miracle and where this happens in the form of a dhoti and the story or the rumour connected with it goes no further. bursting into flames. In both stories it is fear which imposes faith on Examples of this are to be found in Nos. 1, 3 and 4, and to a lesser non-believers. This penal motif recurs frequently in many religious degree in No. 5 as well. In some of the other instances a further ballads in eastern India. The doubting woman and the sceptical development takes place: the person who sets the test submits to the Kahar are persuaded to join the devotees—and do so ritually in the Mahatma's power. Thus the Kahar of Basantpur in No. 2 gets the karahi episode—in the same way as a forceful display of an offended roof of his hut back in position only after he makes amends for questioning the saint's authority by tearful repentance. 76 Phrases like 'by a coincidence', or 'strangely enough', which would otherwise qualify these miracles, occur very seldom in these stories. Besides, these should be read 73 Swadesh, 1 May 1921, p. 7. more as reflecting the viewpoint of the person reporting these occurrences to the press 7* W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, i (London, rather than as indicating a sceptical attitude on the part of the people as a whole. 77 1896), pp. 183-96. We are not concerned with die deification of diose 'who have died The fund was launched by the DCC in late 1920 so that Gandhi on his visit could in a miraculous way', discussed by Crooke under this category. 75 Ibid., p. 191. open a National School at Gorakhpur. 318 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 319 godling's wrathful power breaks the resistance of a non-conformist Gorakhpur to Banaras there was a huge gathering at in a vratkatha or panchali. Salempur station to have his darshan. There was a lad of a This motif is made explicit in No. 8 and its variation, No. 9, by the Barai (betel-leaf grower) in that gathering as well. It is said challenge to the Mahatma's power and the manner in which the latter that he had asked a Mishrain (wife of a Misr, a high caste is seen to triumph. The Brahman thief of Rudrapur village is repre­ Brahman) for a wrapper to come to the station. Sne, repri­ sentative not just of the ordinary village sceptic but of high-caste manded him and refused to give him the blanket. The poor opposition to the Gandhian creed. His resistance questions by impli­ soul came shivering to the station, had darshan of the cation the conformism of the rest of the village (see the modified Mahatma and went back home. In the morning I heard a version in No. 9). But he pays for this by being subjected to physical rumour in the village that she suffered the same fate as befell and mental suffering. Only when his family relents on his behalf, the household of Babu Bhagavan Prasad, vakil of Deoria [i.e. joins the Mahatma's devotees by taking a vow in the latter's name and shit rained all over, see Nos. 17 & 18]. In the end, only when makes an offering does the man's condition improve. It is hard to she kept a fast, not even touching water for a day and a night miss the similarity between this and many other stories of opposition and did aradhana (ritual praying) of the Mahatma, did peace to the Gandhian creed, and between their predictable outcomes. (See finally return to her.' Nos. 12,21 and 23 below). The ending—'as a result of this particular 14. In qasba Hariharpur, tahsil Khalilabad (District Basti) a big occurrence people in the village and its neighbourhood have given up raees was getting a mandir (temple) constructed after the theft/drinking/gambling, etc'—announces in each instance the wishes of his deceased father. Babu Gyan Pal Dev—the victory of the new moral authority which is made all the more raees—had been against Gandhiji, and had threatened his resplendent by the fact of having been deified at the outset. praja with a fine of Rs 5 if anyone even talked of Gandhiji or became his follower. On 4 April at 11.30 p.m. a huge figure B. Opposing the Mahatma with four hands appeared on the scene and announced aloud This theme of personal suffering (kasht) and pollution recur in many before a large gathering, 'I am a follower of Siva. All of you other stories expressly concerned with incidents of direct opposition should do puja to him. Babu sahab give up your wrong to Gandhi. Thus: policies (aniti ko chor do). Speak the Truth. Follow the 10. Pt Damodar Pandey from mauza Gayaghat, PO Uska Bazar Dharma; forsake adharma' After this it assumed a diminutive (Dist. Basti) reported that a man in mauza Dumariya near his form and disappeared. 'This is a factual and eye-witness village had called Gandhi names, as a result of which his account'. eyelids had got stuck... In the first four stories (Nos. 10-13), physical ailment and pollution 11. In Unchava village, one mile from Chara Ghat, four seer of are seen as supernatural punishments meted out to those who opposed ghee belonging to Abhilakh Ahir had gone bad. The reason for Gandhi or (as in No. 13) any of his devotees in word or deed. In No. this was that he had made some sarcastic remarks (vyang 14 the idea of physical punishment is replaced by a divine warning vacban) about Gandhiji. which, since it was delivered in front of a crowd which included 12. Mauni Baba Ramugraha Das of mauza Benuakuti (Benuatikur?) presumably his social inferiors, hurt the prestige of the anti-Gandhian had slandered Mahatmaji on several occasions. As a result of raees of Hariharpur. this his body began to stink of its own (khud-ba-khud). After The story (No. 12) of the holy man of Banuatikur (Mauni Baba) some exertion in the right direction (kuch yatn karne par) who seems to have broken his vow of silence to criticize Gandhi, puts things improved somewhat. Mauniji then made arrangements the usual image of religious preachers and peasant audiences in a for a lakshaad ahuti (sacrifice). slightly different light. It is generally believed that the manipulation 13. Sri Murlidhar Gupt from Majhauli reported, 'When Mahatma of popular religious idiom by renouncers—babas, sanyasis and the Gandhi was going back on the night of 8 February from like—was conducive to the spread of the nationalist message in the 320 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 321 78 countryside. The peregrinations of dharmopdeshak Pandit similar report received from Deoria twenty miles away a couple of Ramanugraha Sharma in eastern UP and western Bihar and the career days ago. (See Nos. 18 and 19 below). of the -reciting Baba Ramchandra in Awadh were clear The Mishrain from Salempur only rebuked the Barai lad for seeking 79 examples of this process at work. However, the rumour about the darshan; there were landlords like Rai Kishore Chand (raees of Mauni Baba's criticism of Gandhi and the afflictions it causecTsuggest Sarheri estate in northern Gorakhpur) and Babu Gyan Pal Dev (of that the word of the local sadhu was not always taken at its face value Hariharpur in Basti) who sought to restrain their praja (tenants) in a in the villages of Gorakhpur. His suffering was interpreted in more forthright fashion.81 The supernatural occurrence at a mandir Benuatikur and broadcast through rumour over a wide area as an in Khalilabad tahsil on 4 April, timed by our correspondent for 11.30 obvious punishment for his anti-Gandhian stance. Apparendy the p.m. and attested as factual, once again shows how such phenomena holy man himself found this explanation convincing enough to repent lent themselves to very different interpretations. Both Jamuna Prasad and make amends in an appropriate manner. We do not know Tripathi who contributed this story to Swadesh and Babu Gyan Pal whether it was a local Congressman or the common people who first Dev agreed that a daitya (ogre) had appeared on the scene, but while thought up this explanation. Even if the former did, the wide currency the former understood this as a divine rebuke for the landlord's of this and similar stories structured around the theme of physical anti-Gandhian actions the latter denied the charge in a rejoinder and suffering caused by opposition to Gandhi and his creed indicates that claimed that the apparition was merely a signal for the promotion of in these we have a moment representative of a very general idea. the Siva cult. How the assembled peasants read this supernatural sign Nos. 13 and 14 provide additional insights into the widespread we do no know for certain, but it is unlikely that they would have phenomenon of Gandhi-darshan. In the first of these the resolve of failed to identify in it an element of divine rebuke to landlord the true darshan-seeker enables him to withstand personal discom­ oppression. fiture while bringing suffering and pollution to an opponent of Mahatmaji. Here fasting and puja add up to an act of penance; in C. Opposing the Gandhian creed in general other instances, to 'worship' the Mahatma would appear to be a part 15. A gentleman from Gorakhpur city wrote that a mukhtar of of the customary female ritual of vrat and aradhana, which were not Alinagar mohalla had asked the women of the house to ply necessarily linked with the notion of penance or prayschit.*0 The text charkha. They said that they were not short of anything, so of the story is also suggestive of the power and spread of rumour: the why should they ply the charkha? By a coincidence a trunk in alleged pollution of the Mishrain's household as a divine retribution the house caught fire in a strange way. 'The whole city was provoked by her anti-Gandhian attitude is identical to the terms of a talking about this incident'. 78 The following description in a pro-government newspaper is illustrative of the 16. There was a criminal case in mauza Bistauli. When the police crude view which projects the peasants as objects of their manipulation: 'The special arrived, both the accused and the aggrieved started telling lies. correspondent of an Indian contemporary [newspaper] dirows considerable light on Someone, invoking the name of Mahatmaji (Mahatmaji ka the methods of certain politico-religious preachers professing to be followers of Mr pratap hatla kar), told them not to tell lies. As soon as the Gandhi who have been carrying on active propaganda in the Rae Bareli district. They evidence was taken down, the culprit's daughter-in-law died. settle in a village, . . . dress themselves in saffron-coloured clothes, and in the beginning of their career refuse to take food for many days. The village people diink 17. 'Sri Tilakdhari Rai from Dhoki (Azamgarh) writes that it was that their saviour has come. The disciple of die Mahatma next takes to preaching, and decided on 18 February at a sabha in mauza Ghaziapur that no gathers round him a great following of persons . . .'. Pioneer Mail, 28 Jan. 1921. one was to let his cattle loose. Qadir chaukidar had also 79 For Ramanugraha Sharma, see p. 12 above. For Baba Ramchandra and his use of pledged (pratigya) not to let his cattle loose, but later he broke the Ramayana and the religious cry ' Ram' in mobilizing peasants in Awadh, see M. his pledge. People reminded him of his solemn promise. He H. Siddiqi, Agrarian Unrest in North India: the United Provinces, 1918-22 (Delhi, replied, "I shall let my cattle astray, let's see what your 1978); S. K. Mittal and Kapil Kumar, 'Baba Ramchandra and the Peasant Upsurge in Oudh', Social Scientist, 10:71 (June 1978); Gyan Pandey, 'Peasant Revolt and Indian *' One of the zamindars referred to on p. 25 was Rai Kishore Chand Raees, a Nationalism'. *° Seep. 46below. resident of Gorakhpur town and member of the District Board. 322 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 323 panchayat and Gandhiji can do?" An hour later his leg started Opposing the Gandhian creed with respect to dietary, drinking and to swell up and pain. Even now the swelling has not stopped'. smoking taboos. 18. 'A special correspondent writes from Deoria that Babu 21. 'Rao Chokri Prasad writes, "The sons of a Tamoli (betel-leaf Bhagvan Prasad vakil is in a strange predicament; shit is to be grower and seller) in the Tamoli neighbourhood of Lalchak found all over his house. Suddenly a murti that was kept in a near Bhatni station killed a goat and ate it up. Some people trunk fell down from the roof of his house. Even when he left tried to dissuade them but they paid no heed. Later, all of them the house, the same predicament prevailed. The illiterates of started vomiting and got very worried. In the end when they the town are of the opinion that this is due to the fact that the vowed in the name of Mahatmaji never to eat meat again their vakil sahab had got into an argument with a speaker who was condition improved" '. discoursing on Non-Co-operation'. 22. A Pandit of Rampur village, thana Mansurganj (Basti) was 19. 'The wife of the famous vakil, Babu Bhagvan Prasad of Deoria repeatedly told by many to give up his habit of eating fish, but has been in a strange predicament for the past few days. he did not listen to anybody. He said—T shall eat fish, let's see Wherever she sits, she sees a bit of vishtha (shit) kept at a what the Mahatmaji can do.' When he sat down to eat [the distance from her. Sometimes she sees shit kept in a leaf- fish] it was crawling with worms! container (dona) for food. There is a murti in the house. When 23. Babu Bhagirath Singh of Paisia, thana Naikot, district she keeps it back after puja it either disappears or is to be found Gorakhpur wrote—'On 21 February the riyaya (peasants) of on the roof, or falls down from there. If she serves poori (a Babu Chandrika Prasad Singh promised to give up liquor as a type of fried bread) to someone, four of these become two; if result of his persuasion. But one Kalwar (of the caste of she serves five then they are reduced to three. distillers) did not keep his solemn promise. As soon as he But it is absolutely false that she has been cursed by a started for the liquor shop, brick-bats started to rain in his disciple of Gandhiji. People say that the vakil sahab had gone path. When he spoke the name of Gandhiji from the core of his to the Calcutta [Congress] and had agreed there to give up his heart the brick-bats stopped flying.' practice, but went back on his word. Subsequendy a disciple 24. On 22 February a sadhu came to Godhbal village, and began (shi'shya) of Gandhiji cursed him. Now wherever the vakil puffing at his ganja pipe. People tried to reason with him, but sahab goes he encounters shit, and even his food, when served, he started abusing Mahatmaji. In the morning his entire body is transformed into shit. All this is untrue. Vakil sahab is was seen covered with shit. healthy, he does not see these things; neither did he go to 25. Pandit Krishnanand Misr from Paharipur village, PO Rampur, Calcutta nor did he promise to give up his practice, and District Azamgarh wrote: 'It was decided at a sabha in mauza nobody has cursed him. Whatever his wife sees in the house, Kamal Sagar that nobody was to partake of any kind of 82 people say, is the work of a ghost (bhoot-leela)' . intoxicant. Later a couple of persons, hiding from general 20. 'On 11 April some people were gambling in the village of view, started rubbing surti (tobacco-leaf, chewing-tobacco) Parasia Ahir. I told them not to. People accepted my advice. on their palms. Suddenly the leg of a calf fell near the house of a Only one person did not listen to me and started abusing Chaturvedi sahab. As a result of this strange occurrence Gandhiji. The next day his goat was bitten by four of his own everybody has given up tobacco, surti, etc. [as well]'. dogs, as a result of which he is now very unhappy and has 26. A man in a sabha in mauza Majhwa had vowed not to smoke, 83 accepted his qusoor (fault)'. but he took to smoking once again. Suddenly he was hemmed 82 Gyan Shakti, Feb. 1921, p. 407. in by worms and insects from all sides. Because of this incident 83 Reported by Kasinath Tiwari, Swadesb, 1 May 1921, p. 7. Some other stories in people in villages far away from Majhwa have also given up which Gandhi is not directly mentioned have been gathered together in Appendix III intoxicants. and serialized as Nos. 42-50. 27. In mauza Davani a Tambolin who used to smoke tobacco 324 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 325 dreamt that she was smoking and the pipe had got stuck to her retribution. Any suggestion of the woman suffering for her husband's mouth. She got afraid and has vowed not to smoke tobacco misdemeanour was rejected by the demonstration of all the rumours again. as being untrue, including the one about the lady having been cursed In a sense these stories are variations on Nos. 10-13. The movement by a disciple of Gandhiji. The lawyer who, according to this report, of the narrative as a sequence of personal suffering and/or pollution had not broken any promise (made to the Congress), remained followed by repentance which, in its turn, generates a social impact, healthy in mind and body. Having taken the politics out of this remains as of before. However, in the present series the punishments rumour, the editor of Gyan Shakti offers an alternative explanation are seen to be meted out to those defying popular decisions taken in of this episode. The strange occurrence was not itself in doubt, it was accordance with generally accepted tenets of the Mahatma. Nearly all just the reading of the signs which was problematic. In the popular rumours about the ill effects of breaking dietary and other taboos are version the rumour appears as a moment in the march of nationalist indicative of a local elaboration of what was believed to be Gandhian politics in the district. In the columns of the loyalist Gyan Shakti it ethics. Even Nos. 16-20 and No. 42 (in Appx III), not concerned loses that particular function: the empirical refutation put forward by with such taboos, suggest that an imbrication of popular attitudes the editor results in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi being replaced by and Gandhian ideas of self-purification was under way in the villages the activity of apolitical spirits (bhoot-leela)! of Gorakhpur. However, it is the stories in the next series which are truly The story (No. 15) from the Alinagar ward of Gorakhpur city is illustrative of the way Gandhi's message was being decoded and the only one concerned with the refusal to ply charkha, while No. 20 amplified in terms of the popularly accepted notions of pollution, about gambling refers to an activity specifically denounced by Gandhi with coincidence and temporal sequence being read as indicators of on his visit there. Nos. 15 and 16 deal with truthfulness and attempts casuality. Gandhi did not press his Gorakhpur audiences to forsake to regulate by a formal pledge the anti-social practice of letting one's fish and meat, yet Nos. 21-2 reproduced above and Nos. 43-6 in cattle loose on other people's fields. The two variations of the story Appendix III suggest that a considerable amount of discussion, about the Deoria vakil and his wife (Nos. 18 and 19) draw on the ending sometimes in a collective resolve (e.g. No. 46), was going on familiar themes of pollution through human excreta and the breach of in the villages on the subject of vegetarianism. In these texts Gandhi's a solemn promise—that of Babu Bhagvan Prasad to give up his legal name is not explicitly associated with any pratigya (vow) to give up practice in accordance with the Non-Co-operation creed. It may be fish, meat, liquor or ganja. However, as in Nos. 21, 22 and 24, the worth our while to pause for a closer look at these two versions. image and 'power' of Gandhi are the essential turning points in the The special correspondent of the Swadesh sought to distance him­ progress of the narrative: they imbue what precedes and follows with self from the popular interpretation of this story—'it is the opinion of a particular set of meanings. The defiant phrase, T shall eat meat/fish, the illiterates of the town'—without providing an alternative expla­ smoke ganja, drink toddy/liquor, let's see what Mahatmaji can do' is nation. This mild disclaimer notwithstanding, he in effect gave crucial to the construction and progress of these rumours. It suggests currency to what had been thought up by the 'illiterates' of Deoria. an interlocution between persons for and against abstinence and the The editor of the pro-government Gyan Shakti (whose pamphlet use of Gandhi's name as a part of the argument. A calamity befalling a against Gandhi and Non-Co-operation was the standard text used by non-conformist, its social impact and his repentance are then connected the district's loyalists),84 provided a fuller account of the rumour, in popular imagination with the unpracticability and undesirability rebutting each and every ideological element of this popular story. In of going against locally imposed decisions in these matters. his account, which accepted the pollution of the house as a fact, it was Again, the absence of the Mahatma from the texts supplied in the wife rather than the lawyer-husband who was the object of Appendix III (see Nos. 43-6, 48) suggests that he has been so fully

84 internalized in this kind of discourse as to require no mention. It See for example the eleven-page pamphlet, Hoshiyar ho jao ('Beware'), written would indeed be a narrowly empirical reading which would see in by Shiv Kumar Shastri and printed by him at the Gyan Shakti press for die Aman Sabha, Gorakhpur. these rumours no trace whatsoever of the popularly accepted notions Gandhi as Mahatma 327 326 Selected Subaltern Studies of dietary taboos associated with the Mahatma in Gorakhpur. A retribution helps to reform not only the culprit, but also the entire comparison of the stories in which he figures explicitly (e.g. Nos. 21, village. In No. 26 the violation, and the punishment which follows, 22) with those from which he is missing would suggest much affinity has an impact not only on the village concerned but far beyond it. in the ordering of the two sets of texts. The sequence: interdiction- The story from mauza Dewani (No. 27) about a tobacco-addict violation-consequence in Nos. 43,46 and 48 is the same as in No. 21. frightened out of her wits in a dream may perhaps be read as a In No. 44, the first step, interdiction, is absent (for no one warns measure of the way in which the interdiction against the use of Shankar Kandu against eating fish), but the follow-up—worms tobacco in any form had already been internalized. emerging from fried fish and the village giving up consumption of In some cases (Nos. 22, 23, 43, 44) transgressors of dietary rules fish and fowl—is suggestive of the notice being taken of such evils as suffer physical harm and pollution of various sorts. The notion of might result from transgressions of this kind, and of the tailoring of pollution is articulated in a multi-faceted way, and for good reasons. popular behaviour in accordance with them. In popular , as Lawrence Babb has argued recently... "Why this concern for dietary purity? We have no evidence to . . . Pollution has certain physical embodiments. All body effluvia are enable us fully to answer this question. However, some plausible polluting, especially faeces, urine, body saliva, menstrual flow and after­ explanations may perhaps be suggested. We have already seen that birth. Products of dead cattle, especially beef and leather, are highly polluting. Decaying things are polluting (a common rationale for consi­ conforming to the drive for ritual purity in the 1910s, a movement in dering liquor to be mildly polluting: 'It's a rotten thing'). Corpses, or favour of giving up not only liquor but also meat and fish had picked anything having to do with death, are sources of extremely powerful up momentum in the towns and bazaars of Gorakhpur and Basti pollution.88 districts.85 Religious preachers were not alone in their advocacy of In our collection of stories the same polluting agents—worms (as vegetarianism. Even the low-caste panchayats of Dhobis, Bhangis an embodiment of the idea of decay) or human faeces—are often and barbers were insisting on heavy fines as a penalty for breaking the associated with rather different acts or items of food. Thus faeces is newly-imposed dietary taboos within their respective communities. associated in No. 19 with a curse for breaking a solemn promise, in This particular emphasis on purity in the spring of 1921 may therefore No. 24 it is the consequence for abusing Gandhi and not conforming be seen as an extension of the Gandhian idea of self-purification to the local advice against smoking ganja, and in No. 45 it is seen as a (through abstinence from ganja and liquor) to a context where the proof of and punishment for animal slaughter. Worms as polluting prohibition enlarged its scope to include meat and fish and could be agents are associated with fish (Nos. 22, 44), though the idea of a regarded as indicative of religiosity and lower-caste self-assertion at miracle—live worms emerging from fish that had been fried or the same time. It is worth recalling in this connection that caste roasted—is also present. However, in No. 26 worms figure as a kind panchayats in northern Basti had decreed in January 1921 that fines of calamity, while the frying of fish in No. 48 leads to the burning imposed at a standard rate of Rs 51 for each violation of this taboo of huts. 86 would have to be donated to the gaushala (asylum for cows). Punishments for wrongs done could be (as in No. 42 below) visited An example of this extension from one banned item to another is on persons other than the actual wrong-doer. Thus in No. 46 the provided by the widening of the scope of interdiction against ganja to spread of an epidemic is associated with violating the generally smoking and even chewing tobacco. It has been noticed above that accepted taboo against eating fish in a village near Pipraich. The Gandhi's injunction against smoking chilum, by which he meant gratuitous suffering by a high-caste person for the sin committed by 87 ganja, could be regarded as applicable to smoking in general. Nos. another—the defilement of a Chaturvedi's house because of an attempt 25—27 of our stories show how this process was worked out in at surti-eating by others (No. 25)—is a theme that is encountered in popular imagination. In No. 25 the ban on intoxicants (maadak other contexts as well. Thus Kashi Tiwari of mauza Asiya Ahir vastuven) by which is generally meant liquor, toddy and ganja is 88 Lawrence A. Babb, Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India (New already extended to surti—chewing tobacco. In that story divine York, 1975), p. 48. 85 See pp. 12-13 above. M Idem »7 See n. 57 above. 328 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 329 wrote to the Swadesh in early April that in his village 'one person had saccha (genuine) the trees would stand up on their own! mixed water in milk, as a result of which the dahi (yoghurt) of several Thousands gather at this site everyday and batashas (a kind of notable persons was infested with worms'. One can hardly miss here sweetmeat), money and ornaments are offered by men and 89 the echoes of a Brahmanical tradition going back to antiquity. women alike. It is said that the proceeds will be donated to the Swarajya ashram and the Tilak Swaraj Fund'.90 D. Boons granted and/or miracles performed in the form of 33. 'A frail mango tree had been bent by a storm. As a matter of manauti and the recovery of things lost fact its roots were not strong enough to withstand the weight 28. PanditJiwnandan Pathak from mauza Devkali, PO of its branches .. . Because of the storm some of the roots were wrote, 'As a result of manauti of Mahatmaji a vessel of a uprooted, but a part remained embedded in the ground. The Musalman which had fallen into a well six months ago came up tree dried up in a few days. People began cutting its branches on its owri\. and taking them home for fuel. As the weight of its branches 29. In Naipura village (Azamgarh), the long-lost calf of Dalku was now reduced, the tree straightened up either on its own, Ahir returned to its peg as a result of the manauti of Mahatmaji. or with the aid of some person. People proclaimed that [the] Dalku Ahir has contributed the one rupee of the manauti to fallen tree [had] planted itself back. A crowd soon gathered, the Swaraj Fund. assuming the proportions of a mela (fair). They are now 30. A gentleman from Ballia district wrote, 'In mauza Rustampur offering flowers, batashas and money to the tree. It is said that a thaili (purse) of a gwala-sadhu containing Rs 90 had dis­ the tree has stood up because of the pratap of Gandhiji. The appeared from his hut. When he took manauti of Mahatmaji, educated are laughing at the mela, and this particular exem­ he found it back in his hut, and the money was intact'. plification of Indian beliefs'.91 31. A well-known zamindar of mauza Samogar (tahsil Deoria) 34. A respected person from reported to the Swadesh had taken a minnat [manauti] of Bhagwatiji and offered a goat the following incidents: 'Two saplings have sprouted from the as a sacrifice. Many took the meat zsprasad. After some time khunta (peg) of a Mahua tree in Chakdehi village, two miles the son of the zamindar found his hands stuck to his chest and from the Khalilabad station. This khunta had been fixed in the his wife went mad. It was only when the zamindar vowed to month of Kartik (October-November), and every day the contribute the price of the sacrificial goat to the National bullocks of one Pandeji used to be tied to it. It is also rumoured School Fund and feast that both the son and the that a Chamar had seen a sapling coming out of the peg on an daughter-in-law began to feel well. earlier occasion, but his wife had plucked it out. Subsequently, the Chamar was rebuked by some people. He then prayed to Boons granted and/or miracles performed in the form of regeneration the Mahatma: "Oh! Mahatmaji, if you are a true Mahatma, of trees and wells then let another sapling sprout". And so it happened. Now 32. 'In mohalla Humayunpur, Gorakhpur city, two dead trees every day crowds of men and women are coming to the spot to which had fallen in the garden of Babu Yugul Kishore, vakil, see the peg'. have planted themselves back! Many believe that this is due to 35. 'In Basti town there lives a widow of Sri Raghubar Kasaudhan. the grace of Mahatmaji. This, because the person who cut the She had a son who died three years ago. Her late husband had trees said that if the pratap (spiritual power) of Mahatmaji was planted two mango trees; one was cut down some time back and the other dried up a year ago. Fifteen days ago it began 89 Swadesh, 10 April 1921. The idea of die sins of the lower castes visiting the higher castes is represented in its classic form in the Ramayana story of a Brahman child's sprouting fresh leaves. The old woman maintains that she had death caused by a Sudra's insistence on engaging in the purificatory rituals of tapasya in taken a manauti of Mahatmaji: "This tree is the only nishani order to attain a high degree of spiritual merit. For a Sudra to do so was to commit a 90 Batsha: A light sweet-meat, in appearance like ratafia cakes. sin. So a Brahman had to pay for it. 91 GyanShakti, April 1921, p. 34. 330 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 331 (sign) of my late husband, let this tree live". A large crowd 39. 'The bhakts (devotees) have ... offered Rs 23-8-12 in Mirzapur gathers at this site as well'. Bazaar where water had come out on its own. Sri Chedi Lai 36. 'Last Saturday smoke started coming out of four or five wells has arranged for this sum to be sent to the Gorakhpur Swaraj in Gorakhpur city. People exclaimed that the water had caught Fund'. fire: The whole city rushed to the spot. Some people drew 40. The water of a well in Bikramjit Bazaar, tappa Belwa (Basti) water from one well: it had the fragrance of keora (pandanus had a very foul smell. Two mahajans took a manauti of the odaratissimus). It is believed that this is also due to the 'pratap' Mahatmaji. By morning the water had become pure. of the Mahatma! Some money etc. has also been offered to 41. 'Plague was raging through Sonaura village. People were living the well'.92 in [outlying] huts. The water in a well at this place was so 37. 'Some days ago a major fire broke out in a village near the shallow on 27 April that even a small drinking vessel (lota) Gorakhpur Civil Courts. The entire village was burnt down. could not be fully submerged in it. Seeing this, one Misrji There is a nala (open drain) nearby. People started digging a offered to distribute Rs 5 in the name of Gandhiji. Subsequendy, chaunra (katcha well) in the nala to get some wet clay and water began to rise slowly. By the afternoon of 28 April the water, but water was not struck even after digging several well had filled up to five cubits, the next day it was eleven cubits. It is said that in the end one person took the manauti of cubits deep'. the Mahatma. After this such a huge jet of water gushed out Once again we have in these stories the suggestion that the that not only was the 16-17 cubit deep well filled up, but the Mahatma's image takes form within pre-existing patterns of popular two adjacent garhas (depressions) were also submerged. Since belief, and ritual action corresponding to these. In Nos. 28-30, then thousands of men and women gather at the site. Flowers, Gandhi is fitted into the widespread practice of taking a vow (manuati) batashas and money are offered, they bathe and wash their addressed to a god, a local godling or a saint on condition of the faces there and some even carry the water back to their homes'.93 removal of an affliction or the fulfilment of a wish. In No. 31 we have 38. 'There is a big depression (garha) to the south of Bulandpur an interesting development of this idea. Here the sacrifice of a goat in village [on the outskirts of Gorakhpur]. This garha is not less accordance with a manauti to Bhagwatiji boomerangs—it brings than twenty-three feet deep. The water level in Gorakhpur is physical and mental suffering to the high-caste household of the around twenty-one feet. In some cases water is struck even zamindar of Samogar. The penance required is not limited to the before this depth is reached. An eleven cubit rope is normally traditional feasting of Brahmans; it now includes the donation of an used in these parts [to raise water from wells]. The present well amount equivalent to the cost of the sacrificial goat to the National from which water gushed out was dug in this deep depression. School Fund. When water was struck it filled the chaunra to the brim. Now The rational, if politically insensitive, explanations offered by the a mela is taking place here. When a chaunra is dug in a deep anti-Congress Gyan Shatki with regard to the regeneration of trees depression such an occurrence is only natural. The water level and wells (see Nos. 33 and 38) indicate the material basis for belief in in Gorakhpur is eleven cubits; if you so desire you may, these miracles. On the other hand, a couple of stories (Nos. 49 and 50 measure it. We have seen scores of such wells which, when in Appx III) not strictly connected with Gandhi point once again to dug in a depression have been filled with water to the brim. the existing stereotype of 'strange occurrences' in which the People are offering flowers, batashas and money at the [above Mahatma's name figures so very often. It is thus that the traditional mentioned] well. They say that even this is an example of the offerings made at the appearance of an image (No. 6) or at the site of a grace of Gandhiji. This well is now called "Gandhi Chaunra" miraculous tree (Nos. 32 and 33) or a well can so easily be transferred . . . Does one require this kind of intelligence for the attainment to a nationalist fund. of swaraj?'94 The stories connected with wells (Nos. 36-41) which underline their importance for irrigation and even more for supphes of drinking 92 Sivadesh, 13 , p. 5. " Swadesh, 10 April 1921, p. 11. 94 Gyan Shakti, April 1921, p. 34. water, call for some additional comments. The two major themes 332 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 333 here are, first, the taking of a manauti by a banker or a high-caste 'regular cost' of constructing a well, eight feet wide and nineteen feet person (usually a landlord) for the purification of drinking water deep, was reckoned to have been Rs 43 in the 1860s, while nearly (Nos. 40 and 41), and secondly, the more common offering of twice as much was spent on ceremonial expenses.98 As the settlement flowers, batasha and money to wells where water has appeared officer reported from Rasulpur Ghaus, Basti, 'On account of the miraculously. Both these are readily understandable once it is realized expense the ceremony is often delayed one or two years, during that it was generally the bigger zamindars and bankers who invested which time the family of the builder makes no use of the water*'.99 in the expensive construction of pukka (masonry) wells. This was a With this kind of worshipful attitude towards the construction of highly ritualized activity in Gorakhpur and was described thus by a masonry wells, the offerings of flowers and money to those spots local ethnographer towards the end of the nineteenth century: where water had appeared miraculously in the spring of 1921 and the When a man intends to sink a well he enquires an auspicious moment from transference of these offerings to a nationalist fund appear as an the Pandit to commence it. When that hour comes, he worships Gauri, elaboration of existing ideas in a novel context. The practice of Ganesh, Shesh Nag, earth, the kudari (spade), and the nine planets. After Gandhi manauti, of his vrat and aradhana (fast and worship), and of worshipping these deities the person himself begins to dig with the kudari women begging alms in his name and making offerings of cooked five times, facing the direction the Pandit has prescribed. Then the food (karahi charana), as noticed in some of the earlier stories, can all labourers begin their work. When they have sunk, so far as to make water 100 appear, an auspicious moment is obtained to put the jamuat or wooden be adduced as further instances of this process at work. support on whom [sic] the brick structure of the well rests in the well. At 98 The break-up was as follows: the auspicious moment the person to whom the well belongs smears the Rs annas jamuat with red powder in five places and ties grass (dub) and thread Offering to family god 1 0 (raksha) on it, and then it is lowered down in the well. On this occasion a Given to Brahmins: 5 dhotees and 5 rupees 9 0 fire sacrifice (/hawan) is performed and Brahmans are fed. When the Given to head beldar, 1 dhoty and 1 rupee 1 12 well has been sunk, cow-dung, cow-milk, cow-urine, cow-ghee, Ganges Liquor for remaining beldars 0 4 water, leaves of tulsi plant and honey are put in it before its water is made 95 Feast to Brahmins (5 to 20) 11 0 use of. Then a fire sacrifice (boma) is performed and Brahmans are fed. Given to Brahmins and workmen, 5 rupees and 5 dhotees 9 0 50 0 In Gorakhpur, according to the same informant, a mango tree was Marriage ceremony from 10 rupees to an unlimited amount 96 usually 'married' to a well. Accounts from neighbouring Basti 82 0 district suggest that the construction of a pukka well was both a Total: 125 0 communal and a ritual act. Neighbouring zamindars sent men, See Report on Pegunnah Rassolpore Ghaus, Appx L, in Gorakhpur-Bustee women and children to collect wood for the firing and baking of Settlement Report, i (Allahabad, 1871), p. 48. bricks, and the sattu, gur and liquor received by them were regarded 99 Idem 100 'in the light rather of a marriage feast than of remuneration'.97 The In a study of popular religion in a north Indian village it has been suggested that 'marriage' of the well to an image (jalotsarg) was preceded by the the relationship between the devotees (bhakts) and the power-wielding deified beings moves along the grid of Bhakti/Sewa: Krpa/Vardan. Faith (bhakti) leads to the mercy carpenter spreading a cbaddar (sheet) on the wooden frame. Into this (krpa) of the gods, while die sewa (service) of the devotees results in the granting of the members of the brotherhood would throw coins of various boon (vardan). On the other hand, the mercy of the gods leads to faith, and the denomination ranging from one paisa to one rupee, depending on accompanying boon results in further service (sewa) through the ritual of vrat (fast, their means and liberality. It was a measure of the importance of puja and bhakti). Powerful deities have the ability not only to remove immediate ritual in the consecration of pukka wells in this region that the distress, but are distinguished by their power to provide long-term shelter (sharan) and even (salvation). See Wadley. While the idea of boons and removal of distress is present in the stories collected above, the notion of the Mahatma providing sharan to his devotees seems to be absent, 95 Note by Ram Gharib Chaube, North Indian Notes and Queries, 3:12 (March probably because Gandhi has not been constructed yet as a full-fledged deity in his 1894), no. 437. own right. Rather, we have the suggestion that Gandhi, because of the fluidity of his 96 North Indian Notes and Queries, 4:12 (March 1895), no. 437. 'powers', can stand in place of existing powerful beings and appropriate ritual actions 97 Statistical, Descriptive and Historial Account of the North Western Provinces, vi connected with their worship, without upsetting the existing hierarchy of the divine (Allahabad, 1881), p. 595. and the deified. 334 Selected Subakern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 335 The editor oi Swadesh reported in April 1921 that 'news [had] been VII received from several places of women begging in the name of Taken together, these stories indicate how ideas about Gandhi's Gandhiji as they did for Devi Bhawani and offering karahi [to him]'. pratap and the appreciation of his message derived from popular Women were also going round the threshing-floors, where the rabi Hindu beliefs and practices and the material culture of the peasantry. crop had just been gathered, and asking for donations of grain, again 101 Does not the fact of the reporting of these rumours in the local to make offerings of karahi to the Mahatma. The contemporary nationalist weekly suggest that these were actively spread by interested significance of the karahi ritual is somewhat unclear, though it appears 102 parties? It is true that such rumours enter our sources at the point to have been associated with propitation and the bringing of luck. where a correspondent communicates them to the Swadesh. But that What is significant, in any case, is that this was an extension of a need not be taken to mean that these did not exist prior to and practice related to the worship of Devi Bhawani and that begging at independent of their publication. Their generalized circulation in the the threshing-floor put the peasants under a moral obligation to villages of Gorakhpur is also attested by their being reported and donate some grain in the name of the Mahatma at a time when a denied in the local anti-nationalist monthly, Gyan Shakti. surplus was readily available at the very site where it was being There can be no doubt that the reporting of these rumours in the processed. In fact a similar obligation was placed on peasants manu­ local paper, Swadesh, must have added to their circulation and even facturing gur at the kolhuar as well: to turn a beggar away from a to their authenticity. Lefebvre in his study of rural panic in revolu­ place where so much raw sugar was being made was an undesirable tionary observes how journalists imbued rumours 'with a act which would seldom go unpunished.103 It is hardly surprising, new strength by putting . . . them into print'.105 However, it seems then, that the refusal of an Ahir in Nanusakh village (Azamgarh) to unlikely that printing could have changed the character of these offer some gur to a hungry sadhu who came begging to his kolhuar rumours to any significant degree; it merely increased their effective­ (on 1 March 1921) was rumoured to have resulted within half an hour ness as oral and unauthored speech.106 People in the Gorakhpur in the gur and the two buffaloes of the Ahir being destroyed by countryside believed in these not out of any unquestioning trust in fire.104 The version of this story, as reported in the Swadesh, did not the weekly newspaper but because they accorded with existing beliefs mention Gandhi, although the Pioneer suggested that the sadhu was about marvels and miracles, about right and wrong. asking for alms in the Mahatma's name. True or not, it is possible that In Indian villages even printed texts often revert to their oral the Lucknow journal was not alone in associating him with this characteristics in the very process of communication. It has been particular episode. noted that newspapers, pamphlets, etc. are made intelligible to the 101 Swadesh, 10 April 1921. illiterate population in the countryside by reading aloud, paraphrasing 102 Prof. A. N. Pandeya (IIT, Delhi) informs me that the phrase 'karahi charana' the text in the rustic dialect and commenting on it.107 In 'advanced refers in his part of the district (Padrauna tahsil) to the practice of women offering cultural communities', Vachek notes, written texts are taken 'as a sign cake-like cooked food, prepared at the site of the local godling (usually female) in the of the first order (i.e. the sign of an outside world)', the decipher­ open under a tree. Devi Bhawani, according to Crooke, is a north Indian mother 108 goddess. ing of which requires 'no detour by way of spoken language'. It 103 Grierson's account of the worship of Makkar or Makar Bir in Bihar by the seems that one of the reasons for the reading aloud of newspapers in workmen of the kolhuar is worth recalling in this context. 'Near the place where the 105 Georges Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789: Rural Panic in Revolutionary France cane is cut into slips the men make a round idol of the deity called makar bir . . . He is (London, 1973), p. 74. said to have been originally a Dom, who once came to a sugar manufactory in the olden 106 For the characterization of rumour as oral and unauthored speech, see Ranajit time and asked for juice, which the people refused to give to him. Thereupon he Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Delhi, 1983), jumped into the boiler and was boiled to death. His spirit became deified, and is now Ch.6. worshipped by the workmen . . .'. G. A. Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life (1885: reprint, 107 'Language Problem in the Rural Development of Nordi India', in Language in Delhi, 1975), pp. 55-6. The theme of suicide leading to the wrongdoer accepting his Social Groups: Essays by John J. Gumperz (California, 1971), p. 19. fault and then propitating and worshipping the spirit of the deceased is a recurring one 108 Josef Vachek, 'Some Remarks on Writing and Phonetic Transcriptions', in Eric in Indian folklore. See Crooke, pp. 191-5. ,04 Swadesh, 13 March 1921, p. 5. Hamp et al. (eds.), Readings in Linguistics, ii (, 1966), p. 155. - 336 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 337 Indian villages is that even for a large part of the technically literate as a result of.which crores of rupees are being collected. Therefore, due to population printed texts can be deciphered only by a detour through the efforts of Babu Krishna Prasad, neither will postal rates go up nor will there be a deficit in the budget this year . . . the spoken language. In such readings, it seems reasonable to suggest, a It was rumoured that a well in Gorakhpur was smelling of keora. [See story acquires its authentication from its motif and the name of its No. 36]. Now it has been confirmed by the Khilafat Committee that Sri place of origin rather than from the authority of the correspondent. It Shiv Mangal Gundhi had emptied his karahs full of keora into the well, as then spreads by word of mouth, and derives its credibility from any it is said that he is going to perform the last rites for his Sundar Shringar association, real or imaginary, it might have with place-names familiar Karyalay [a perfumary in the city] and is shortly to take up the running of a [nationalist] press.'u to the local population.109 How did the local Congress leadership react to the spread of these It is doubtful how many outside the city of Gorakhpur would have stories? Maulvi Subhanullah, the DCC President, while recounting understood Mannan Dwivedi's allusions or allowed satire to get the some of these to the Sessions Judge in June 1922, admitted that 'no better of belief. Even the editor of Swadesh, when pressed, could attempt was made by the Congress or Khilafat to prevent [the] public write an impassioned defence of the peasant's acceptance of these from believing in them'.! I0 Swadesh, the newspaper which published stories: these stories under the sanctimonious rubric bhakton ki bhavnain— We do not consider . . . Swadesh to be the property (mirds) of its editor. 'beliefs of the devotees'—adopted a double-edged policy in this Therefore, we consider it as part of our duty to report the thoughts and 111 feelings current among the people (janta), whether right or wrong, in our regard. On the one hand it published a note every now and then paper .... It is possible that some people might doubt these strange debunking some of the more fanciful stories and also let its satirist, happenings, but the janta does not consider them so [improbable]. And Mannan Dwivedi, poke fun at them. On the other hand when there is a reason for this. It is because Hinduism has placed faith and belief attacked by the Pioneer, it came up with a spirited defence of its (shraddha aur vishwas) on a high footing. It is because of this that those policy of printing these stories. who worship stone images have their prayers answered. It is because of this that people take a dip in the holy waters of Gangaji and think that In March 1921 some people used the services of public criers to their sins have been washed away. In every age and country, every now announce that 'Mahatmaji had emerged from fire [unhurt] and that and then, such things have happened. Even in the time of the Buddha, Swaraj had been established'. They went so far as to swear by the Mohammad and Christ such miracles were supposed to have taken place. truth of such statements. The editor of Swadesh promptly denounced Then we see no reason why miracles (chamatkar) should not be associated with Mahatma Gandhi whose name is perhaps even better known in India this as an irresponsible act which had no sanction from the Mahatma. than that of Ram and.Sita. It has been said: 'Vishwaso [sic]phaldayakah': However, the same issue of the journal contained two columns of faith yields fruit. Gandhi stories under the heading 'strange happenings'. Elsewhere in 'jaki rahi bhavana jaisi, the same issue Mannan Dwivedi, writing under the pen-name Shriyut prabhu moorat dekhi tin taisi'.',3 Muchandar Nath, satirized some of these as follows: The editor of Swadesh, who had himself sought to inculcate an 114 It is true that a felled tree in the front of Babu Yugal Kishore's garden has attitude of devotion in the district towards the Mahatma, had thus lanted itself back and even sprouted leaves due to the grace of Mahatmaji. no hesitation in printing rumours about the latter's pratap. It was pSee No. 32 above]. Every day lakhs of people come to see this [miracle], only when these appeared to instigate dangerous beliefs and actions, 109 Thus in Satyajit Ray's film, Ashani Sanket, the foreign place-name Singapore is such as those concerning demands for the abolition of zamindari, made meaningful to the peasants in a village by the suggestion that it is reduction of rents or enforcement of just price at the bazaars, that the somewhere near Midnapore! journal came out with prompt disclaimers.115 110 Evidence, Chauri Chaura Trials, p. 556. 112 111 Dwivedi, when queried by the Court about these miracles, proffered little Swadesh, 10 April 1921, p. 5. information, and in fact maintained mat in his paper he had 'given a summary... of me 113 'Bhakton ki Bhavnain', editorial note, Swadesh, 1 May 1921. Whatever faith one teaching of Mahatma Gandhi that he [was] not a god'. An extract from Navjivan in has, the image of god appears accordingly. which Gandhi disclaimed to be an avtar was printed by Swadesh on the front page of its 1,4 Cf. pp. 17-18 above. issue of 4 . See Evidence, Chauri Chaura Trials, p. 569. "s SeeSwadesh, 18Sept. 1921,p. 8;6March 1921,p. 12. 338 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 339 VIII the Congress party. As the High Court judges observed, the local Just as the Mahatma was associated in Gorakhpur with a variety of peasantry 'perceived of it [Swaraj] as a millenium in which taxation miraculous occurrences, so did his name lend itself as a label for all would be limited to the collection of small cash contributions or dues sorts of public meetings, pamphlets—and of course for that polysemic in kind from fields and threshing floors, and [in] which the cultivators word Swaraj. Surveying the background to the Chauri Chaura riot, would hold their lands at little more than nominal rents'.120 During the judges of the found it 'remarkable... how the course of the trial the district Congress and Khilafat leadership this name of "Swaraj" was linked, in the minds of the peasantry of repeatedly denied having propagated any such ideas in the villages. In Gorakhpur, with the name of Mr Gandhi. Everywhere in the evidence fact there is evidence that as early as March 1921 public proclamations and in statements made ... by various accused persons', they found about the advent of Swaraj were being made in the Gorakhpur that 'it was "Gandhiji's Swaraj", or the "Mahatmaji's Swaraj" for countryside. These, as we have noted above, were denounced by the which they [i.e. the peasants] were looking'.,16 'Announcements in Congress paper Swadesh. The pro-landlord Gyan Shakti drew pointed ' were sold by Lai Mohammad, one of the principal accused in attention to such occurrences as ominous signs which boded ill for all the Chauri Chaura case, as 'Gandhi papers' which were to be preserved concerned: and produced 'when Gandhiji asked for . . . [them]'. The receipt for One night people from all the villages [!] kept awake and roamed over five donations to the Khilafat fund, which bore a superficial resemblance villages each. That night it was impossible to get any sleep. They were to a one-rupee bank note, was referred to as a 'Gandhi note' by the shouting 'Gandhiji ki jai'. They had dhol, tasa, jhal, majiras (kettledrums peasants of Gorakhpur. The editor of Gyan Shakti, to whom we owe and cymbals) with them. The din thus caused was unbearable. People this information, alleged that villagers interpreted its non-acceptance were shouting, this is the drum of swaraj (swaraj ka danka). Swaraj has (as legal tender?) as an act of opposition to the Mahatma.117 Whether been attained. The English had taken a bet with Gandhiji that they would grant Swaraj if Gandhiji could come out of fire [unhurt]. Gandhiji took peasants genuinely failed to recognize the difference (as officials.in 18 hold of the tail of a calf and went through fire. Now Swaraj has been some Awadh districts implied),' or whether this was just a conscious attained. It was also announced that now only four annas or eight annas a manipulation of an ambiguous printed paper to force non-believers bigha would have to be paid in rent. We have also heard that some into acceptance, we do not know for certain. What is clear, however, peasants are insisting that they will not pay more than eight annas a bigha is that we have in the 'Gandhi note' an index of the popular tendency as rent. These rumours are signs of an impending clash between the peasants to look upon the Mahatma as an alternative source of authority. We and the landlords. As a result of this both parties shall suffer. Sensible have it on lotal testimony that peasant volunteers proceeding to a (parhe-likhe) peasants, landlords and the government should refute such sabba at Dumri on the morning of 4 February 1922 (hours before the rumours. Remember this! If ordinary people retain their belief in such historic clash with the police was to occur at the Chaura thana a rumours and persist in their quest for the chimerical then the attainment of couple of miles away), claimed that they were 'going to hold a Swaraj will become increasingly distant. Peasants are now refusing to 19 obey their landlords, or work for them. This is not a good sign for the Gandhi Mahatma Sabha' which would bring about 'Gandhi Swaraj'.' country.121 The popular notion of 'Gandhiji's Swaraj' in Gorakhpur appears to have taken shape quite independently of the district leadership of Quite clearly this was a miracle (Gandhi's passage through fire) consistent with the existing level of peasant consciousness and its foil

1,6 in Utopian hopes for a world free of rents—a far cry these from Appeal No. 51 of 1923: King Emperor vs. Abdullah and others. Judgement of the Allahabad High Court, dated 30 , p. 9, High Court Archives, Allahabad. 120 Judgement, Allahabad High Court, p. 9. The evidence about Lai Mohammad in the next sentence comes from the testimony of 121 'Swaraj ka Danka: Char Anna Malguzari: Zamindaron ki Chinta', Gyan Shakti, Shikari before the Sessions Judge, p. 1. April 1921, pp. 34-5. This rumour, which had originated in the villages of the 117 Gyan Shakti, Feb. 1921, p. 404. south-eastern tahsil of Deoria, spread to the neighbouring district of north Bihar and 118 See for instance the official handbill 'Khabardar', issued by the Dy. Commr. of underwent a transformation in the process. It was rumoured here that Gandhi Baba, a Rae Bareli, encl. in Papers, Pt II, File 120, NMML. cow, a Brahman and an Englishman had been put to an ordeal by fire, and only the 1" Evidence of Mindhai, cultivator of Mahadeva, and Birda, cultivator of Bale, Englishman had got burned. People were to pass on this story to five other villages on Chauri Chaura Trials, pp. 512-13. pain of incurring the sin of killing five cows. Cited in Henningham, p. 100. 340 Selected Subaltern Studies Gandhi as Mahatma 341 official Congress policy—which marked the irruption of Swaraj that and struck terror in the hearts of waverers and enemies alike.128 For night in Gorakhpur villages.122 However, as local-level volunteer the peasants of north India this had ceased in effect to be a Gandhian activity entered a more militant phase in late 1921, the coming of cry; it was now a cry with which an attack on a market or a thana was Swaraj was perceived—contrary to anything the Congress stood for announced. 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai' had, in this context, assumed at that time—in terms of the direct supplanting of the authority of the 123 the function of such traditional war cries as 'Jai Mahabir' or 'Bam police (just as the earlier notion of divine punishment for opposition Bam Mahadeo'. An interesting case of such a transformation is to the Gandhian creed was replaced by the idea that it was for the provided by the following intelligence report from Bara Banki: panchayats themselves to dispense justice in such cases). Thus Sarju Kahar, the personal servant of the murdered thanedar of Chaura, The big Mahadeo Fair near Ramnagar passed off quiedy, though the extensive substitution of Gandhi ki jai for the orthodox Bam Bam Mahadeo testified that 'two or four days before the affair [he] had heard that was noticeable even when there were no government officer[s] present.l29 Gandhi Mahatma's Swaraj had been established, mat the Chaura thana would be abolished, and that the volunteers would set up their The crowd of Badhiks (a so-called 'criminal tribe') that looted the own thana'.124 According to Harbans Kurmi of Mangapatti, Narayan, Tinkonia Bazaar in Gorakhpur on 15 February 1921, did so to the cry of 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai'. In a small fair at Auraneshwarghat in Bara Baleshar and Chamru of his village said on their return from the riot 125 Banki a dispute with halwais (confectioners) on 22 February 1922 led to that 'they had burnt and thrown away and Swaraj had come'. Or as the upsetting and looting of sweetmeat and other stalls 'to the accom­ Phenku Chamar told the Sessions Judge in : paniments of shouts of Mahatma Gandhi kijai aur mitbai le leu'.*30 Bipat Kahar, Sarup Bhar and Mahadeo Bhuj were coming along calling Thus a 'jaikar' of adoration and adulation had become the rallying out 'Gandhi Maharaj Gandhi Maharaj' from the north, the direction of cry for direct action. While such action sought to justify itself by a Chaura, to [the] south, the direction of Barhampur. I asked why they were calling out 'Gandhi Maharaj' and they said the thana of Chaura had reference to the Mahatma, the Gandhi of its rustic protagonists was been burnt and razed to the ground [by them] and the Maharaj's swaraj not as he really was, but as they had thought him up. Though deriving had come.126 their legitimacy from the supposed orders of Gandhi, peasant actions in such cases were framed in terms of what was popularly regarded to IX be just, fair and possible. As an official reply to the question of Corresponding to this dramatic change in the manifestation of haat-looting in north Bihar in the winter of 1921 stated: 'Gandhiji's Swaraj', there was for the peasant volunteers of Chauri The evidence in the possession of the Government leaves no doubt that Chaura a transformation in the spirit of that ubiquitous cry, 'Gandhi the haat-looting was directly connected with the state of excitement and Maharaj ki jai', as well. We have noticed how this cry had assumed an unrest produced by the non-co-operation agitation. The persons who audacious overtone during Gandhi's return journey from Gorakhpur started the loot first of all asked the price of rice, or cloth or vegetables or 127 whatever me particular article might be, and when the price was mentioned, in February 1921. Within a month, as the 'Swaraj ka danka' alleged that Gandhi had given the order that the price should be so much, episode suggests, xhejaikar of Gandhi had become a militant avowal usually a quarter of the current market rate. When the shopkeepers of the organized strength of peasant volunteers, a cry which mobilized refused to sell at lower prices, they were abused and beaten and then- shops were looted.131 122 The belief in an impending Swaraj was no doubt related to Gandhi's utterances 128 This transformation was similar to what the cry 'Sita Ram' had been undergoing on this point, though its signs were far from Gandhian. 123 in the villages of Awadh at about the same time. See Pandey, 'Peasant Revolt and See 'Some Instances of the highhanded mediods of Non-Cooperation Indian Nationalism', pp. 169-70. ,2» PAI, 1 . Volunteers', encl. to Bihar Govt, letter dated, 5 Dec. 1921, Home Poll. File 327/1/ 130 Idem; King Emperor vs. Badloo Badhik and odiers, Trial no. 25 of 1921, 1922, NAI. 124 Judgement by the Sessions Judge, Gorakhpur, 30 April 1921. Tajwiz Awwal, Chauri Chaura Trials, p. 358. 131 125 Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council Debates, 8 March 1921, i, p. 293. There Chauri Chaura Trials, p. 525. was a rumour current in Gorakhpur villages as well, that wheat, rice and clodi would 126 Chauri Chaura Trials, p. 516. 127 become cheaper because of the 'order of Mahatma Gandhi'. See Gyan Shakti, Feb. See pp. 19-20 above. 1921, p. 405. 342 Selected Subaltern Studies There was thus no single authorized version of the Mahatma to which the peasants of eastern UP and north Bihar may be said to have subscribed in 1921. Indeed their ideas about Gandhi's 'orders' and 'powers' were often at variance with those of the local Congress- Khilafat leadership and clashed with the basic tenets of Gandhism Appendix I itself. The violence at Chauri Chaura was rooted in this paradox. Appendix II 346 Selected Subaltern Studies

Notes to the Map Legend Appendix III f Places where lecturers were sent to announce the arrival of Gandhi. • Places from where volunteers came to Gorakhpur on 8 February 1921 to help with the organization of the meeting. * Approximate locale of Gandhi-stories reported in Swadesh. Some 'extraordinary occurrences* in Gorakhpur, 1921, other than those ostensibly related to Note Mahatma Gandhi. This is a rough and tentative sketch map which makes no claim to be entirely accurate. Not all the unmetalled roads as they existed in 1921 have been Motif: Opposing the Gandhian creed shown. In a majority of cases it has been possible to locate the villages by 42. 'A Koiri of mauza Tandwa forcibly brought a woman to a checking place-names mentioned in Swadesh with the Village Directory of village and kept her in his house. Far from reprimanding and the North-Western Provinces, xxi, Gorakhpur (Allahabad, 1893), compiled punishing him the men of the village offered their congratula­ by the Postmaster-General NWP. Where the village concerned does not appear in the district and tahsil maps, I have hypothetically situated it near tions. Consequendy, the harvested crops of the villagers kept the Post Office which served it. However, in spite of my best efforts I must at a common threshing-floor caught fire and were reduced to inevitably have fallen into a degree of error in those instances where, for ashes'. instance, the text does not mention either the tappa or the Post Office, 43. 'Pandit Madho Shukl of Kakarahi village (tahsil Bansgaon) especially if its name was identical with that of any other village or villages. continued to eat meat despite the attempts by his family to However, it seems to me that even if the marking of villages from which a particular 'story' originated may not be cartographicaUy accurate in all cases, dissuade him. One day a trunk kept between two others in the a rough placement may be of some use in indicating the locale of a story and house caught fire. Seeing this his wife raised an alarm and the territory generally traversed by a rumour. The geographical coverage of people from the village rushed to the house. Now Panditji has rumours outside Gorakhpur district has not been indicated, except by a promised not to touch meat again'. rough marking for some of the places in Basti district. 44. 'In Sinhanjori village (PO Kasia) hundreds of live worms emerged out of the fish fried by Shankar Kandu. Seeing this the entire village has given up meat and fish [rnans-machlif. 45. 'In Kurabal village shit rained in the house of a Bari (caste of domestic servants) for a whole day, and he is now living in another's house. On enquiry he has confessed to his crime (dosh)of slaughtering a goat'. 46. 'A gentleman from mauza Patra (PO Pipraich) writes that people of the village had given up the practice of eating meat and fish. However, on the instigation of a karinda some people caught fish in a shallow ditch and ate it up. Since then an epidemic has spread here; ten people have been swallowed by death (kaal ke graas ho gaye)m five days'. 47. 'A Muslim toddy-tapper of Padrauna was told by a Master sahab to give up this practice. One day he fell down from the tree. As a result of this incident all the Muslims are giving up toddy-tapping'. 348 Selected Subaltern Studies 48. 'The building of the Punjab Sugar Mill, Ghughli was being constructed. On 4 March, a few of the memars (construction workers) went to the bazaar of the Mahant and despite the attempt by some people to prevent them, they bought fish and drank toddy. When they sat down at night to fry the fish their huts caught fire. They had to sleep out in the open, with dew falling on them. That very night it rained and hail fell as well. In the morning the news came that their homes had also caught fire. What could they do? Crying and repenting they went back to their respective homes'.

Motif: Boons and Miracles 49. 'In mauza Surdahi (PO ), a branch has come out at one end of a dead-and-cut pipal tree. Huge crowds are gathering at this sight'. 50. 'In Padrauna on 29 April, two new springs sprouted in a well three feet above the water level. Now the source of the spring has gone down because of the rise in the water level. For the past three days large crowds have been gathering at the site'.